Original subtitles

23 minutes to go to the start of the 1995 British Grand Prix. And my bones

tell me that we have got a very, very exciting, memorable two hours in front

of us. In fact, the unpredictability has already started.

Because just a few minutes ago, as you heard from Steve Ryder, we had a few

spots of rain. The warm-up this morning was dry.

The qualifying yesterday was wet.

The qualifying on Friday was dry.

The teams will therefore have had an opportunity to try to sort out the best

critical settings for both dry and wet conditions.

But the problem is if in the next 25 minutes we don't have much rain and the

course is damp, what tyres will there be fitting?

And Damon Hill is probably going to give us his opinion talking to Steve Ryder.

Everyone wanting to talk to Damon Hill here.

Damon, a quick word for BBC Sunday Grandstand viewers, and in particular on

the conditions, a few rain spots as you came round the circuit there.

Yes, we had that this morning.

It doesn't look like it's going to continue, though, but there is every

chance it could happen again in the race, and we're very cautious about that

fact. The mood around the camp, and how did morning warm-up go for you?

It was good morning warm-up, but you can't really...

Go on what happens, other than particularly what your car feels like,

and getting a good feel for the race.

And I was happy with the car, and I feel confident with it, so I should be able

to put that into practice for the race and convert my pole position here into a

race win.

And your own sense of composure, has the week spilled up? Well, it's been a bit

frantic, I know, but has it been close to ideal?

It's been fantastic. There's been a lot of interest, a lot of hype, a lot of

nonsense, and really this is the only...

Real truth, the race itself.

And everyone knows that I want to beat Michael Schumacher. I want to close the

gap on him in the championship.

But it's still early days in the championship. We've got a long way to

go. But nevertheless, we've got to reverse the trend that he set of winning

too many races.

How intense has the debate been within the team about race, tactics and

strategy?

Well, I was here until about 11 o'clock last night.

I think that there's been...

A great deal of attention paid to how we approached the race.

Really, the bottom line is you have to just go quicker.

And a word about the fans and support around this circuit for yourself and all

the British drivers is fantastic.

It's marvellous. It's really, really great. It's a great event.

To be here, you don't really appreciate it until you're here and feel the

atmosphere. Have another good British Grand Prix. Thanks, David. All the best.

You heard a few words about the warm-up this morning. Let me just try and

explain that. There's a half-hour period, four and a half hours before the

race begins, in which the cars are allowed out on the track again.

And it's in that final half hour that you see how quickly the cars will go in

relation to each other with whatever fuel load they are choosing to run in

the race. And, of course, they are on race tyres, slicks or wets, according to

the conditions.

And we had a shock this morning in the warm-up because the much derided McLaren

Mercedes, which has not been successful this year, to put it mildly, was fastest

in the hands of Mika Hakkinen. And when I nipped down to find out how, the

answer was that there is a new Mercedes-Illmore built engine, which was

brought in here overnight.

They were not at all sure about whether they were going to use it in the race,

but have now decided that they will.

It's a bit of a gamble. It may break, but if it holds together, we know it's a

lot quicker.

And Mika Hakkinen is a tremendously fast driver, up with Schumacher and Damon

Hill, certainly in terms of race speed ability.

And he is absolutely burning to get some points.

He's well down in the pecking order this year. He's only ninth in the

championship with five points.

But second in the warm-up was Damon Hill.

Very comfortably so, very happy with his car. And good news for Williams fans is

that Coulthard was third fastest.

The Ferraris need watching, and a man who'll be doing that is three times

world champion, Niki Lauda. They consulted to his width, Steve Ryder.

Niki Lauda, with what sort of optimism are Ferrari approaching this British

Grand Prix?

I'm afraid with not too much, unless the weather helps us, because the weather

now is very funny.

So if the rain comes in, everybody thinks it can change.

But in the moment, it looks like if Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher would

just go and leave everybody, especially when the circuit is dry.

So it will all depend what the weather will do. With your experience, how are

you reading the potential conditions we've got now?

I think it's the worst condition for racing drivers to be on the grid, not

knowing if the first corner is damp. At the moment, thank God, the weather

stopped and it doesn't rain. But if the circuit gets slippery...

I don't want to be in the start here and then go with slicks into the first

corner. So it all depends on what the weather's going to do.

British Grand Prix, always a special occasion. It seems bigger and better

than ever.

It is. I've never seen a crowd like this before.

Coming here to the circuit took ages this morning. So it's really impressive.

Niki, Ferrari, have a good race. Thank you very much.

What a great man. Three times world champion for Ferrari and McLaren, Niki

Lauda. You heard what he had to say. You caught a brief glimpse of His Royal

Highness the Duke of Kent with Lord Hesketh, who is the president of the

British Racing Drivers Club, who own and operate this superb Silverstone circuit.

Gerhard Berger there in the world championship is in fourth position.

He hasn't won a race this year. He won one last year, the German Grand Prix for

Ferrari. Ferrari have come up to speed very much this year.

They've got marvellous men at the Maranello factory. They've got superb

facilities. They've got a gigantic budget. It was just a case of pulling it

all together.

And under the control of Frenchman Jean Tote, they have done just that.

And there you can see the Benetton.

But a significant point in this race, as in every race, and I'd like to give

Jonathan a chance to talk about it before the race begins, is this question

of tyre and refuelling strategies.

But Johnny Herbert there is starting fifth on the grid, which is an excellent

performance.

Already on the grid and also ready is David Coulthard with Steve Rymer.

David Coulthard, you've got away with work.

Sum up the tension at driver field at a moment like this.

Well, it's very difficult now, especially as it started to spit with

rain. And all the work you've done through the warm-up, and you think

you've got a good balance, and then this can just make it a bit of a lottery. So

it's fair to say that I'm very nervous at this time.

Now, you were fastest in the wet yesterday.

potentially a factor this afternoon?

Yeah, I think I would be okay if it was to rain during the race. That's

providing I can get back to the pits and slicks.

It always makes it incredibly difficult, and I really hope that it just remains

the same.

At the start last year, frustrations for yourself. You're on the second row, and

what's the thinking, what's the strategy for the opening two laps for yourself?

Well, first of all, try not to stall in the warm-up lap, of course.

I fully intend trying to make a place at the start. It's difficult. I'm offline,

so I'm on the messy side.

So I've got to try and make sure I can, first of all, go forward, but, of

course, make sure Gerhard doesn't come up the inside.

And as we've heard from Damon, spirit's good in the team.

All of you have a good race. Thank you very much.

Well, a confident-looking David Coulthard.

Incidentally, this is going to be the first race this year that he has not

been on medication because he's been suffering from nasty attacks of

tonsillitis. He had his tonsils removed.

after the French Grand Prix.

He's looking sharper. He says he's feeling a lot fitter. He's back in

training. And this is his 16th Grand Prix today here. 16 Grand Prix in a

year, normally. 17 this year, just to prove me wrong there.

But 16 Grand Prix. This is David Coulthard's 16th. He would love to win

this one in his first year of Grand Prix racing.

So, of course, would Eddie Irvine there.

The Irishman in the Irish Jordan team.

And Eddie Irvine is starting 7th on the grid. He had a very special engine for

qualifying yesterday. They used the Furjo V10 engine. Now the national

anthem.

Ukyo Katayama, the only Japanese driver in the race, driving the Tyrrell Yamaha.

And this gives me a chance to ask the guru of refuelling strategies, Jonathan

Palmer, what's going to happen?

Well, we've got a 60-lap race here, and it's my guess that the most likely

strategy that teams will adopt is to stop twice.

And the first stop would typically, I think, be around about lap 15 to lap 20,

something like that, with a second stop between about lap 35 and lap 40. The

teams tend to stop a little bit before one-third and two-thirds distance,

respectively, as a rule, because the racing tends to be harder in the early

stages. But there's a fly in the ointment, I think, to that, and that is

from looking at the morning's warm-up times with Michael Schumacher, I think

there's a suspicion that Benetton and Schumacher could be stopping just once.

That's a regime that they adopted to great effect to win the Spanish Grand

Prix, and the reason for that is that Schumacher's times weren't that quick.

He wasn't ahead of the times, or even indeed in the first two.

And this could be a strategy that they're looking at adopting, partly

because they are unsure on the weather. We know that the chance of showers is

quite likely.

and many teams feel that if there's going to be a chance of wet weather,

then they don't want to be doing too many stops, and to do just one could be

the right thing to do.

Groveling apologies to Taki Inoue, who is as Japanese as I am English, and is

the second Japanese driver in the race. He's driving the Arrows Heart.

Now, what's going to happen when this race begins?

Well, you know as well as I do. There is the Copse Corner, which is a 100 mile an

hour corner, just a few yards away from the start.

Last year, Damon Hill started from the front row of the grid with Michael

Schumacher. That's where they are now.

But Johnny Herbert has got a view on that, as he has on all other things, and

he's with Steve Wright.

Johnny, a little late on the grid, a fair amount of activity around the car.

Does that indicate problems?

No, it doesn't. No, everything's okay.

It's just we were out a little bit late, and I just wanted to do two laps onto

the grid, so that's why I'm a bit late.

Has there been any kind of discussion on tyres?

No tyres at the moment. We're sort of happy how they're going, so we haven't

got any problems with the tyres.

You've got a good qualifying position, legacy of Friday's performance.

What are your thoughts for the race?

Well, the thoughts are good. The car, we had a problem with one of the dampers

this morning, but the car now feels a lot, lot better, and it feels much more

comfortable to drive now. So I think from that point of view, that should

actually help me a little bit.

You rode a good British Grand Prix. Have one today.

Thanks a lot.

There is a very, very brave and determined man.

Johnny Herbert shattered both his legs in a dreadful crash in Formula 3000 at

Brands Hatch in 1988.

It took him a long, long time to recover.

He's had quite a few Formula One drives with the Benetton team, Tyrrell, Lotus

for a long time, Ligier as well. Now back with Benetton, a second position

this year.

And he will be hoping very much for points because Benetton want points for

the Constructors' Championship.

You may have heard Flavio Briatore earlier on saying that to them the

Constructors' Championship was not all that important. The Drivers'

Championship is all important.

I believe that, but I do not believe that the Constructors' Championship is

not important to them.

And you want two top drivers to get those points, as Williams have got in

Damon Hill and David Coulthard, and Benetton now have in Michael Schumacher

and Johnny Herbert.

So, there's the man who will be looking to get away first from pole

position, the second year in succession at the British Grand Prix, Damon Hill.

It's his eighth pole position.

in his career.

It's his fourth of this year and he has wryly pointed out himself that in his

previous three pole positions the positions were reversed at the end of

the race and he will be hoping that doesn't happen today.

Michael Schumacher, second on the grid had a dreadful British Grand Prix last

year. He got the black flag and subsequently lost his points.

He finished in second place.

And in third position on the grid It's the second Williams Renault, that of

David Coulthard.

So, it's Renault-engined cars in the top three places, Damon Hill, then Michael

Schumacher. There is 24-year-old David Coulthard, a man that quite a few

people here, actually, are saying could win this year.

I believe he could win this year. He's got tremendous opposition against him,

of course, in Schumacher and Hill, both of whom have considerably more

experience than him. This, after all, is only David's 16th race.

The ever-smiling practical joker, Gerhard Berger, the winner of the 1994

German Grand Prix, the last win but one for Ferrari.

Starting fourth on the grid, The Ferraris are a bit disappointing here,

to be quite honest with you. But next to Gerhard Berger, it is Johnny Herbert

himself. He's got his balaclava on after talking to Steve Ryder. On goes that

distinctively coloured helmet of his, which distinguishes him in the car, from

Michael Schoonacher, whose helmet carries the colours of Germany.

That's Tim Wright in the glasses, who is Johnny Herbert's race engineer.

Giorno Lacey, the hero of Canada.

My goodness, they invaded the course for him in Canada. He carried the evocative

number of Gilles Villeneuve, number 27.

Ferrari is the darling of Canada, and now Giorno Lacey is too. He won their

Grand Prix, his first in 91 races at that time. The most spectacular Grand

Prix driver of them all.

That's Eddie Irvine.

A man who has consistently outdriven the very, very capable

Rubens Barrichello, his teammate, in the Jordan with the Peugeot V10 engine. They

have a new evolution of that V10 engine, which is much better and as reliable as

the previous one.

Now, is this man going to do something spectacular this race?

The answer is yes.

Because the moment Mika Hakkinen lets the clutch in, it is spectacular.

But remember what I told you. He's got what they call the hand grenade engine

behind him.

The engine built by Ilmour at Bricksworth for Mercedes-Benz.

This is the youngest driver in the race, Rubens Barrichello, from Brazil. His

mentor was Ayrton Senna.

And Rubens Barrichello is starting from ninth on the grid.

He's the man who had that superb drive in Donington in his appallingly wet

conditions when he ran second for a long time.

And completing the top ten, England's Mark Blundell.

And written on his helmet there around the back is Will to Win, which he

carries in honour of his grandfather.

There it is, the will to win.

Now, Mark Blundell is driving the McLaren that Mansell would have been

driving.

Martin Brundle, who is starting 11th on the grid, had a big off this morning.

They've rebuilt the Ligier since then. It wasn't terribly badly damaged, but it

was badly damaged enough for them to consider using the spare, but they

decided they could get it all together again.

He spun off fairly harmlessly, but was then hit by the 40 car of Pedro Diniz,

the Brazilian.

And that did the Ligier no good at all. Ligier car, Mugen engine.

As you can see, there's not only an enormous crowd around the track. 90,000

tickets. This is the first all-ticket British Grand Prix.

And the word was yesterday, if you haven't got a ticket, don't even bother

to come.

There were traffic jams outside the circuit, very, very big traffic jams, at

5 o'clock this morning.

I came in at 7 o'clock, and if I hadn't known the back roads, I think I would

still be there.

24 cars to start in the British Grand Prix, and bringing up the rear of the

grid, Nicosalo, 23rd on the Tyrrell Yamaha, and Montemini on the Pacific.

Five minutes to go.

Damon Hill, pole position.

Michael Schumacher, second on the grid.

David Coulthard, third on the grid.

Do you want to risk a prophecy, Jonathan?

It's going to be very, very close indeed.

Hill really has driven extraordinarily well here in qualifying.

We thought that Schumacher had done an absolutely scintillating time with that

1 minute 28.3. And I think Damon wasn't confident that even he could beat it.

But he did. He went out there and achieved just that. And I think we

should also reflect that Williams will have undoubtedly looked very carefully

at their race performance at the last Grand Prix in France and looked at the

various areas where they lost out. And I think as a result of that...

We'll see Damon pushing even harder during the race than he was in France. I

think he's going to have to recognize that he needs to adopt more of a

qualifying level of pace, even in the race.

I think Damon's going to recognise that he needs to be able to thigh through the

back, marker traffic better.

Williams know that they've got to get their refuelling strategy right, and

that includes the basic strategy, and that's do you stop once, twice, or we

think it's very unlikely, three times.

And then you've got to make sure that when you do stop, you try and do that as

slickly as possible. And again, Benetton are the past masters on that.

Benetton seem to be able to take the same amount of fuel on in one second

less than Williams, and Williams will be sharpening up their act there. And I

think also Williams will sharpen up their act in terms of exactly where...

when they do call Damon in, because he certainly lost about four seconds in

France, because he was called in two laps later than Schumacher, and

Schumacher therefore had the advantage of not losing time in traffic, and you

can see the concentration there in Hill's eyes. I think Damon Hill can do

it here today.

All quiet on the Silverstone front. You could cut the atmosphere with a cricket

stump here. Three minutes to go before the start of this 61 lap,

191 mile race, which is going to make so much difference to the world

championship. Michael Schumacher has already won this year in Brazil, in

Spain, in Monaco and in France.

Damon Hill has won twice in Argentina.

and at the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola. The seventh Grand Prix was won by

Jean Alessi in the Ferrari.

So three winners, and they are all on the top three rows of the grid.

Damon Hill, pole.

Michael Schumacher second, Jean Alessi is on the third row in sixth position.

The charge up to Copse, which has been reprofiled this year, is going to be

very important indeed.

But let me remind you that this Silverstone is a very different one from

1993.

In 1994, that dreadful year for Grand Prix racing, the British Racing Drivers

Club in 16 days caused the most...

in all embracing changes to be made to Silverstone in its history for safety

reasons the result is that the new Beckett's complex is absolutely superb

one of the best corner complexes in Grand Prix racing there are one or two

corners that the drivers don't like as much as they did before but they accept

that it is that way because of the safety needs and there is Silverstone

you can see

The start and finish line at the top into Copse Corner, the first right

-hander.

Now, we may see a reference to Intermediate 1 and Intermediate 2.

There are three sectors where the track can be individually timed, from the

finish line to Intermediate 1, and that will take about 31 seconds.

From 1 to 2 takes about 23 seconds, and from 2 to 3 takes about 38

seconds. That's a 1 minute 32 seconds lap.

Damon Hill's pole position time was 1 minute 28 seconds.

And the black joker in the pack, I regret to say, has to be, look at the

top of your screen, what is the weather going to do? It's grey, it's overcast.

There's quite a stiff breeze blowing and tugging the flags on their flagpoles.

And let's hope that keeps up because I think that will help to keep the rain

away. But the die is soon going to be cast.

When they leave the grid, it will not be to start the race as such. It will be to

start the first and extra formation lap, as it is called. And this is the one

where... Michael Schumacher blotted his copy book last year by illegally passing

Damon Hill.

Well, he hasn't done that this time, and in fact has hung back a bit, and David

Coulthard is now having to check that he doesn't overtake Michael Schumacher.

Coming down now, 185 miles an hour on the gracing line, third gear through

Cots Corner, they'll be doing about 110 through that, accelerating up to 175

before the Beckett's complex.

And during this lap, the drivers are all warming up their engines. They're

warming up their tires.

They need to operate at about 90 degrees centigrade. And the brakes need to be

warmed up, too. And they need to operate around about 500 degrees.

It's a tense time for the drivers, too, because they know that within about

another minute, they are going to be pulling up on that start grid. They're

going to have to keep their engines warmed.

You can see the weaving of cars from left to right. That's the Triumph.

create some artificial corners to try and generate more heat in these tyres.

Very important to do that. But they're going to know that what they do when

they come onto that grid, they don't want to overheat the engine.

They've got to watch those red lights. It's absolutely crucial.

Their best chance to overtake, the most dangerous chance of the race. Puffer

braking locking there from Michael Schumacher. Obviously just pumping that

brake pedal to try and get temperature into those brakes. That would have done

any harm, but it's not too good to do that kind of thing. Now they're coming

up now towards out of the...

Club right-hander corner. They'll be doing 150 miles an hour at that point.

See how Damon Hill slows up now.

Damon does not want to arrive on that grid well ahead of everybody else

because the earlier he gets there, the longer he's going to have to wait with

his engine gradually overheating. So he's let the queue of cars build up

behind him. Then he'll have, as we can see now, a jab of acceleration up

towards... This is a fantastic corner here. Bridge, 150 miles an hour. Bridge

corner, flat out in fifth gear. Left hand up very tight into prior... 80

miles an hour down to almost first gear for some corners for this next one at

brooklyn 60 70 miles an hour then you've got the right hand of the two rights

luffield one luffield two both 30 80 miles an hour in third gear but apart

from watching hill and schumacher this start's going to be absolutely crucial

to see who gets away first it should be hill he's on the left hand side of the

track which is our right hand side looking head on that's the line that's

where the track has got the rubber in it's cleaner there should be more grip

there but apart from those front two another one to watch out for is Mika

Hakkinen in the red and white McLaren he's down in eighth place but he is he's

just coming into the top of the picture then he's gone now but watch for him if

he moves up and I'm sure he will it'll sure to be spectacular

Yes, this is the crunch time. The British Grand Prix is soon to begin.

They are coming round the corner. The tail end is there is Mika Salo, who had

his Friday times disallowed for failing to comply with the red light for

weighing his car.

Bringing up the rear of the grid is Andrea Montemini.

We are in Lacey's Ferrari now, the winner of the Canadian Grand Prix.

And as Jonathan said, I advise you very strongly to keep an eye on Mika

Hakkinen.

And watch for the lights.

Go. Beautiful start by Damon Hill. A puff of smoke from the Ferrari.

Alessi sprints past. He's up alongside Michael Schumacher. It's Damon Hill

leading and incredible.

Alessi's gone up into second.

Schumacher is at third.

David Coulthard is down from third to fourth. Schumacher is challenging

Alessi. as they come up to the left-hander at Maggots. But already,

Damon Hill is starting to pull away as they come through the daunting Beckett's

complex and down the hangar straight.

Damon Hill leads on lap one out of 61.

The Ferrari of the determined, stylish, spectacular John Aleti.

Michael Schumacher is third. Right behind him and challenging is David

Corbin and trying to go through.

Fifth is Johnny Herbert and sixth is Mika Hakkinen who has already, in this

half-lap, Closed up two places. He's gone up from eighth to sixth. That new

Mercedes engine is doing the business.

And so is Damon Hill.

This is it. If Damon Hill can stay there, he's going to be a very happy man

indeed. But there are 60 laps to go after this one.

Hill, then.

Alessi, second.

Schumacher, third.

Coulthard is in fourth position.

Fifth is Johnny Herbert. Sixth is Hakkinen.

Fifth was...

One of the Jordans, I suspect, Rubens Barrichello. This is almost the end of

the first lap because they're round Priory. That is Brooklyn.

Into the double right-hander at Luffield 1.

Luffield 2. And Damon Hill is going to have at least a second's lead at the end

of this first lap with 60 to go.

And look at him.

Over the line. Hill. And Hill's lead over Jean Alessi is 1.1 seconds.

Schumacher. Coulthard. Herbert. Hakkinen.

Barrichello is 7th. Trundle is 8th. Gerhard Berger is 9th. Frankson is 10th.

And there goes Tarnis.

Irvine.

And Damon Hill has got the hammer down. Now, Jonathan, this early in the race,

does that mean to say that he's on a light fuel load and maybe stopping

twice? Well, it's too early to say that yet. We need to see how the performance

of the rest of the cars unfold.

But Damon Hill's going to be very pleased indeed to see that red Ferrari

in his mirrors.

Pleased because he knows the Ferrari is not on his level of pace. And we're now

with Schumacher. That's a Lacey just ahead.

Now, that's the reason that Damon's going to be pleased, because he knows

that Schumacher's going to have a fairly hard job getting by Jean Alessi. The

Benetton is certainly faster on the same fuel loads than the Ferrari, and the

Ferrari actually is not that fast on the straights here at Silverstone, but this

is certain to give Damon a bit of respite, give Damon the chance to pull

out a lead, because Alessi will end up, I'm sure, holding up a few of traffic

led there by Michael Schumacher.

Jean Alessi is a Frenchman and he follows the Maginot Line policy.

They shall not pass.

And seeing Michael Schumacher, the world champion behind him, he's not going to

move over and let Michael through.

And Schumacher's got another problem.

One problem is getting past Jean Alessi in the red Ferrari in front of him. The

other is keeping behind him David Coulthard, who is in fourth position.

The second Benetton Renault of Johnny Herbert is still fifth. Now here is

Hill. It's a cop.

Schumacher behind him in third position round the right hander that's over 100

miles an hour this corner and Schumacher takes a slightly tighter line but all

this as Jonathan said is advantageous to Damon Hill his lead at the end of the

second lap over the battle between Alessi Coulthard and Herbert was 2.1

seconds he's doubled his lead in two laps fastest lap from Damon Hill on

board with Schumacher now And we're going to be able to find it. And that's

what it looks like from the back of a lacy's car looking back at Schumacher.

And that is about as close as Schumacher's going to be able to get for

a lot of the time. It doesn't look that close from where we are here.

But the closer that Schumacher gets to the back of that Ferrari, and that's

right down at 60 miles an hour, the left-hander at club.

They're going up through the gears, third, fourth, fifth, accelerating. They

can't quite go flat out through here.

150 miles an hour now in fourth gear. But the closer that Schumacher gets, the

more he loses grip, particularly from the front of the car, because of all the

airflow being turbulently coming off the back of that Ferrari. So it's difficult

to get much focus. There you can see that traffic jam building up.

And all the time, which is very good news for Damon Hill, because he can

progressively extend his lead. But all great credit to Jean Alessi. There are

two things that, apart, and that's Eddie Irvine pulling off there. Eddie Irvine,

very, very sad for Eddie Irvine in the Jordan. He was running there, and we

think he had a spin.

What a great shame there.

But credit, credit to Jean Alessi. The start is so important, and he made up.

four places up there, from six right up to second. Another driver who's done a

great job on the start was actually Martin Brundle, who moved up from 11th

to 8th, although he's since dropped back one place when Gerhard Berger got by.

But David Coulthard's been the man that's lost out. He's dropped back to

fourth behind, of course, Schumacher there.

I don't know what a fuming German looks like but I suspect it looks like Michael

Schumacher because he's locked in and there's Eddie Irvine. That's Eddie

Irvine. That's a replay of Irvine spinning the Jordan.

And now there is Schumacher. Now Damon Hill is 3.4 seconds ahead of

this battle between the Ferrari.

There, Jean Alessi.

The Benetton, there, Michael Schumacher, and just behind him, David Coulthard.

Coulthard had a pretty torrid, there's the gap, look, coming up towards Abbey.

And at the moment, Damon Hill is pulling out one second a lap.

This is a lot of time to be able to pull out.

And he's got to use this clear track. He's going to have a clear track now for

about another 12 laps. Because within 15 laps, they'll come up to the back

markers. And he's got to do whatever he can to pull it out.

And I suspect that John Alessi, from looking at the times he's doing, he's

not going particularly quickly.

He may even be going for just one stop, which would be tremendously frustrating

to Michael Schumacher.

If I was going to take a guess at this point, I would say that Schumacher is

going for one stop.

The fact that he didn't get away off the line that quickly could have been

consistent with running his car a little heavier. And again, I would say that

Hill's fans are probably consistent with running two stops, but it's pretty early

days to say that yet.

Four laps completed. 4.7 seconds is the lead that Damon Hill has over the battle

for second place that you can see as we look down from the helicopter.

And it's getting greater and greater all the time. And this is going to be a

tremendous help to Damon Hill when it comes to refueling time because he will

have a cushion that will help him. And you can see in the background that

Johnny Herbert is starting to close up. He's lapping faster than Coulthard ahead

of him. So there's Ferrari second, Benetton third, Williams of Coulthard on

the left side of your picture is fourth. And just coming into your picture now

is...

It's getting really exciting.

Now let's take a look at this start again. Looking from overhead.

Gerhard Berger in fourth place. A lot of wheel spin in that Ferrari. Loses

traction and Lacey is rocketing by.

Coming right up there past Michael Schumacher. David Coulthard. A lot of

brakes from Michael Schumacher there. Coulthard back in fourth place. And then

Eligio. I think a brundle right up behind the McLaren of Hacken and two.

But great credit to this man, John Lacey. He's done. He's done the job of a

racing driver off the line. And timing those revs just right to get the most

traction really is very difficult indeed.

That Ferrari.

engine, that V12 engine revs to 17,000 revs and it's so easy like Berger did to

get too much wheel spin and tyre smoke might look spectacular but it doesn't

get you off the line quickly.

That was a rocket start by Alessi and it inhibited Michael Schumacher of course.

It's very difficult to get past.

Alessi's car is probably faster than the Benetton down the straight. The Benetton

may be a bit quicker around the corners.

in the hands of Michael Schumacher, but he can't get close enough to challenge

Jean Alessi, and Damon Hill is now 6.2 seconds ahead of the battle for

third position.

Race order, in fact, on lap six, which is one-tenth distance, Damon Hill leads

by 6.2 seconds, Alessi is second, Schumacher that we are riding with,

looking at the Ferrari in front as he gets closer on braking, is third,

Coulthard is fourth, right behind him, Johnny Herbert is fifth.

Hakkinen is getting closer to Herbert in sixth position.

Seventh is Barrichello. Eighth is Berger in the second Ferrari.

Well down for him.

Martin Brundle in that repaired Ligier is ninth. Ahead of Marc Blundell. So

both the McLarens in the top ten.

Parnis is eleventh.

Fredson is in twelfth position. And we're on lap six out of sixty.

Now, one thing we should just watch for, I think it's an unlikely possibility,

but nevertheless it may occur, and that's that a Lacey may have made that

good a start that he might have actually jumped the start.

Now, we have a very sensitive electronic jump start mechanism now in Formula 1,

and it takes them a few laps to go through it and double-check and treble

-check the data to make sure that any infringement has indeed occurred.

And normally it's round about lap 7, lap 8, in a lap or two's time, when, if

anybody has made a jump start, we shall see it come up on our screen, and if

that indeed is the case... They'll need to come in for what's called a time

penalty. And now we're on board with Coulthard now. And, of course, Coulthard

is right behind Michael Schumacher. And this is as frustrating for Coulthard as

Schumacher because Alessi is holding the whole queue up. That's the point at

which they may be able to get by.

Coming there into the section where you have a long straight followed by a slow

corner. And now they're coming into the left-hander at club. That was coming

into Stowe before. See how Schumacher uses all the curbs on the inside?

That's quite normal.

Most of the drivers will try to use whatever curving they can, providing it

doesn't upset the car.

Now, once your shoe marks are on the right-hand side, they're coming into the

abbey. It's a right, left, or right on the entry, left through there, then

right on the exit.

Holding on the power.

Coming up towards the bridge corner, this is fifth gear, virtually flat out,

150 miles an hour, but the braking distance is too short. Down to second

gear and down to 70 miles an hour for Priory, and now Brooklyn's to do much

about it. But Schumacher or Coulthard may have half a chance coming around the

second of the Luffield right-handers. Now this is leading us on to the start

-finish line. Let's just look to see if Schumacher can keep up close, because we

do know from the morning warm-up times and from the qualifying that the Ferrari

hasn't been that fast in Australia.

line and this is Copse Corner now third gear right hander but Schumacher still

too far away to do anything about it each of these four drivers are pushing

the man in front except for Lacey of course he's a long way behind Damon Hill

now and the predominantly British spectator here is rooting

for Damon Hill and is Delighted because the gap now is nearly nine seconds on

the eighth lap.

Damon Hill is consistently pulling away and the British enthusiasts will be

praying for reliability from the Williams. You heard it, Damon Hill,

earlier in the programme, I'm sure, saying that they've had one or two

reliability problems, predominantly with a hydraulic pump, on which they've been

working very hard and they think and hope they've overcome their problem. But

look! A completely clear track all the way back from... From Abbey to Club, and

that's a long way between Hill, Alisi, Schumacher right behind him, Coulthard

is right behind, and in fifth position it's still Johnny Herbert ahead of

Hakkinen. But as I said earlier on, if any of those men just put a wheel wrong,

it's going to create an opportunity for the man behind him to nip past. And if

Schumacher could get past Jean Alisi, I think...

He might try, well, he obviously tried to close the gap between himself and

Damon Hill. He might well succeed, depending on his fuel load and depending

on when they're coming in for tyres.

Now you see the gap as, through the heat haze, they swim towards us. Alessi

second, Schumacher third, Schultard fourth, Johnny Herbert fifth, Hakkinen

is sixth, right behind him is Barrett Callow, Seth Berger is eighth. Here's

Martin Brundle, who is in ninth position in the Ligier, in tenth position in the

second McLaren, there.

is Mark Blundell.

Eleventh is Olivier Parnis. That is him in the Ligier-Mouguin. And there is race

leader Damon Hill round Stowe. He's the full length of the hangar straight now

in front of the battling Alessi. Once again, Michael Schumacher pulls to the

right and has a look. Now, he may just be doing this every lap to try to make

Alessi think he's going to go dive through on the inside only to close up

on the outside.

Feasible or not?

Well, it's possible, but I really don't think he's close enough, and I think

Alessi knows he's not close enough for that to have a viable chance.

And these two drivers are both extremely experienced.

Had Alessi been a newcomer, he would have been easier to raffle, and

Schumacher will know that he can pressurize all he likes, and he will

indeed do that because he's a professional, and that's the

professional thing to do.

We're looking with David Coulthard now behind Michael Schumacher, but I'm sure

that Schumacher also knows that Alessi is unlikely to kind of succumb to that

sort of pressure.

playing into the hand wonderfully for Damon Hill. He's able to pull out over

one second, 1.3 seconds per lap. We're now on lap eight. And there we are, jump

start Barrichello. Rubens Barrichello, he was in seventh position.

He's going to lose 30 seconds from this jump start penalty.

And Olivier Parnis as well, that's the second one. So two of them now.

Yeah, the amazing thing is that both Barrichello and Parnis...

had jump start penalties in the last event, the French Grand Prix, and both

of them were absolutely vehement in their insistence that they'd not had a

jump start.

Let me tell you how they work it out. The car has a sensor, a transponder,

underneath the driver, and there is a sensor in the track, and the sensor

measures the distance between itself and the transponder, and if that distance

decreases before the green light comes on, they are adjudged to have had a jump

start. So a jump start might literally be just putting the car in gear. It's

down to the stewards to decide whether they thought the driver had done it

deliberately or not. I would be very surprised. Now, now we're with

Barrichello. This is a wonderful shot from the roll bar of Rubens

Barrichello's Jordan Peugeot. He's in seventh place. Now, the Brazilian has

had a very rough season, one way or another, psychologically, after the

tragic death of his mentor Ayrton Senna last year.

And then the fact that Eddie Irvine joined the Jordan team and proceeded to

put Barrichello away in terms of speed, both in qualifying and in the race, and

having a jump-start penalty two races in succession.

is not going to do anything for his well-being at all. So he's got three

laps now. They've got to bring him in, the team, they've got to bring him in

within three laps of the penalty notification having been given. He may

be coming in this lap, or it may be the next one, or the one after.

If he stays out, as Schumacher stayed out last year, he would get the same

treatment that Schumacher got last year, black flag and exclusion.

Now, the notification of those time penalties for the jump start will be

coming up on the team manager's screens as well. And I'm sure that the Benetton

team have been speaking to Michael Schumacher. Schumacher would have

wondered, has John Alessi made a jump start?

And in the last lap, they will be telling Michael Schumacher on his radio,

sorry, Michael, there is no evidence of it. It looks like he hasn't. Therefore,

I'm afraid that you are resigned to having to follow John Alessi unless you

can find a way by, unless he makes a mistake, until the first round of pit

stops come. And Schumacher and the Williams team, there is no way. that

they would have anticipated. This kind of meteoric start from Alessi to come up

from sixth to second is, I think, virtually unprecedented. It's quite

extraordinary. Now, the first round of pit stops is likely to take place, I

think, in about another five laps.

But if they're going to make two stops, we shall see the cars come in somewhere

between lap 15 and lap 20. Now with David Coulthard following Michael

Schumacher. This is this train of cars between lap 15 and lap 20 for that first

stop. Lap 35 to lap 40 for the second.

But we still don't know whether or not John Alessi, he might be staying out

until lap 26, lap 27, like I have a suspicion Michael Schumacher might be,

for one solitary stop. And if he does do that, that's going to be bad news for

all of those cars following him.

Damon Hill is now leading the British Grand Prix on lap 12 out of 61 by a

massive 11 seconds.

A massive 11 seconds. There's one of the 40 cars in the pit lane there. As the

battle for second, third, fourth and fifth goes past and into Copse Corner.

And what a fascinating season this is turning out to be. Because when it

started, the Williams car was the best. It was better than the Benetton, better

than the Ferrari, much better than the McLaren, better than the Jordan.

and Hill might have won in Brazil had his suspension not collapsed but he did

win very convincingly in Argentina and San Marino then when things were looking

bad for Benetton they suddenly got on top of their problems in Spain and

Schumacher won a commanding victory followed by another in Monaco then

Alessi won in the Ferrari Schumacher was back on top in France and people were

beginning to say Williams are in trouble but Just as somebody once said to me,

never underestimate McLaren, I would say to everybody else, never underestimate

Williams. Because under Patrick Head and Adrian Newey, everybody at Williams has

got together and patiently and diligently worked on and developed the

car, got it better and better.

And here is the proof of the pudding.

Damon Hill on lap 12 is still extending his lead by a second a lap. He's now 12

seconds ahead with 50 laps.

Yes, and that's all time in the bank for Damon Hill. It's of no advantage in any

other way for Michael Schumacher or David Coulthard behind that. They won't

really be any easier on their tyres. You can see that from the odd puff of smoke

that you see from Michael Schumacher in his desperation to try and find a way

by. He's going to be working that car as hard as if he was actually ahead of

Valesi. But further behind that, we've got this train of three cars there.

We've got Schumacher and Coulthard. Johnny Herbert just fading away a little

bit. He's now two seconds behind. You can see it just there, the Benetton at

the back of the picture.

And then we've got Mika Hakkinen. We just saw him. He's dropping back

surprisingly fast, bearing in mind his morning warm-up time. We might have

expected more of that. I'm pretty sure that they're only going to stop twice.

But Hackenon's actually holding up Barry Kellough, who we're expecting to come in

for his... That's Olivier Pallis coming into the pits for his time penalty.

Surprising not to see Barry Kellough, because he would have been informed of

that as we ride with Michael...

With Michael Schumacher there. And there is Pannis having his jump start penalty.

And he sees a digital board on the right. That's what he's looking at. The

seconds tick away.

But it's much worse from his point of view than a ten second penalty.

Because there is a very long entry to the pit lane in Silverstone.

And there's an almost equally long exit. So he will in effect have lost more like

thirty seconds than ten seconds. By the time he's slowed down to come in. And

speeded up to get in. out, and that will have cost him at least four places.

And with Hill now having made the fastest lap of the race, further to

extend his lead, now nearly 14 seconds on lap 13, he's pulling away faster,

more than a second a lap now.

Alessi Schumacher-Kulpa, second, third, fourth.

Johnny Herbert is still fifth, but now two seconds behind.

Hakkinen is still sixth, and I suspect, and I could well be wrong, that if he is

slowing, it may be because that new engine goes very quick, but it may not

be altogether a reliable one.

Well, I'm rather surprised to see Rubens Barrichello come past the start twice

now. Pannis came in for his stop, as we thought, but Barrichello was also having

a jump-start penalty, and he's not come in, and he needs to come in, certainly

within the next four laps, or he will be penalised, just like Michael Schumacher,

and he could get the black flag.

One assumes that the Jordan team are in communication with the Jordan of

Barrichello, and we just were with Barrichello then to inform him of that,

and let's just hope that he does come in at the end of this lap.

We will know the answer to that pretty quickly, but did you see from that

caption at the bottom of the screen how incredibly consistent Damon Hill is? One

minute 30.5, one minute 30.4, one tenth of a second, and now he's in

amongst the traffic. Damon Hill is already on lap 14 out of 61, lapping the

back markers.

He's gone past Roberto Moreno's 40. He has gone past Andrea Montemino. Here he

is going past Andrea Montemino's car. There's his pit board.

Plus 15 seconds.

That will be a wonderful sight for Damon Hill. Who of course is totally, totally

focused on this race. You have to be to get round the corners as quickly as

possible. Exit them as quickly as possible. Break at the right place.

But his concentration will be on.

Victory for the second year in succession.

Ten world championship points, but whatever Damon Hill does, and whatever

happens to Michael Schumacher, even if Bill wins and Schumacher retires,

Schumacher will still be leading the world championship at the end of the

British Grand Prix. He's 11 points ahead of Damon Hill as I talk to you now.

There's 10 points for a win, so if Damon wins and even if Schumacher retired,

Damon would only be one point behind Schumacher.

is the world champion and the world championship leader, unable to do

anything at all about John Alessi's Ferrari. The Frenchman, the French

Sicilian driving a superb, cool for him, calculated and as ever, very, very

spectacular race.

I think this illustrates very well just how difficult it is to overtake in

Formula 1. These drivers are all so evenly matched. They're all pushing

their cars which are evenly matched to the absolute limit.

And the braking distances are very, very short, even from 180 miles an hour down

to 70 for a tight corner, such as coming into Stowe, takes just one and a half

seconds of braking.

And it's terribly difficult to get an overlap doing that. It's a little bit

easier if the conditions are wet there. But we've just seen on the Jordan pit

board that Barrichello has had the in penalty sign.

I think we can interpret from that that he hasn't heard his radio or his radio

is not working. And there is David Coulthard there. I think it is coming

into his first pit stop. Now, let's look. Coulthard was just behind.

Let's see, can he get ahead of Schumacher? Because this is now the

source of interest. So, looks like two stops regime for Coulthard. The first of

the two stops. In he comes.

On goes the refuelling pipe, that big red pipe for the refuelling. On go the

wheels. And let's see how long it takes for him to do it.

And in comes Barrichello for his time penalty.

And 11 seconds and they've reduced fuel flow rate of about 10 litres.

A second now, and out goes David Coulthard.

Now he has dropped at the present moment to fifth place. He may drop even lower,

although as he comes to rejoin the course, and Barrichello staggers, well,

far better than staggers, lays great strips of rubber as he wheel spins his

way out after that ten-second penalty. So there are going to be changes, and

we're with Barrichello now as he's going through that Beckett's complex at 125

miles an hour.

Into now the left-hander at Chapel Curve. This is it. Building up speed

down the hangar straight.

And back to the battle for second position.

And you can see a Lacey.

Schumacher. No Coulthard, of course, because he's been in for his pit stop.

But that may have been advantageous to him later on in the race. It means that

Johnny Herbert is up into fourth place. But is Mika Hakkinen going to be fifth?

Or is David Coulthard going to be fifth?

We're with the Benetton now, and Michael Schumacher, out goes his signal.

Eight-tenths of a second behind Giorno Lacey. He doesn't need telling that.

He's been looking at the Ferrari rear wing and almost literally breathing its

exhaust fumes now for 16 whole laps. This is lap 17 in the 61-lap race.

Damon Hill is now 16 seconds ahead of the battle. We are with.

Now the key issue is pit stop strategy now. I would expect to see Damon Hill

coming in in the next couple of laps. I think Williams may have learnt from

France to bring David Coulthard in early to make sure that Damon's progress is

not going to be compromised by the fact that Coulthard has occupied the pit when

Damon needed to be in the pit. So let's see if Damon Hill comes in in the next

couple of laps. And then, behind that, there's a couple of squabbling Pacific

cars there. Now this could provide the opportunity for Michael Schumacher to

get by John Alessi, because Schumacher... May still wonder whether

or not. Then we have some back markers. The 40 of Moreno. Then we have the

Pacific there of Gachot. And then we have Monterminy. Now it's trying to get

by back markers that provide a chance for Alessi maybe to fumble. And Michael

Schumacher to second guess it and get ahead.

And David Coulthard who was the first of the top runners to come into the pit to

refuel and take time to Schumacher challenges Lacey as Lacey passes the

first of the Pacifics and he nearly got the jump on the Ferrari there but I was

telling you that David Coulthard is down to 9th position and Taki Inui to the

relief of many of the drivers I am sure looks as though he is out of the race

having spun to a standstill and stored his engine in the arrows but look at

this. There is Sean Alessi in second position.

Tucked up tight behind him is Michael Schumacher. In front of him is Bertrand

Gachot in the Pacific, who has allowed Alessi through, but he's blocking

inadvertently Michael Schumacher, who now passes him as Alessi goes through

and laps Pedro Diniz in the second of the 40 cars.

And in the process, Alessi has opened up and again, but Martin Brundle is out.

That's exactly what he did.

That's exactly what he did.

because Martin Brundle spun into the gravel track yesterday in the Ligier.

And he has gone out of what was 11th position.

So we now have retirements. Eddie Irvine, Taki Inui, Martin Brundle. But

up front on lap 18 out of 61, Damon Hill continues to stride away. 18

seconds ahead.

And Ferrari in the pit lane have got the scarlet uniformed Italian attendants

out. Remember what happened to Gerhard Berger in France.

because he came in, and here is Brundle's spin. Here's a replay of

Martin Brundle losing the back of the Ligier.

Now, his problem may well be that the Ligier is headquartered at Magny-Cours,

where they do all their testing. It's a very smooth circuit.

Silverstone is a lot bumpier. They don't do any testing here, and it's very

difficult. And a lacy in. Schumacher goes up into second place.

Now, if he's got anything in reserve, this is his chance to charge.

but probably not for very long, because unless Damon Hill is going to make one

stop only, he's going to be in soon, as his team-mate Goulvard has already been

in. So, Alessi, who was second, stops.

Schumacher has gone up into second. Herbert has gone up into third.

Hakkinen will go up into fourth position.

Watch, remember what the time was.

And out goes a lacy. A very similar time to David Coulthard. So the key issue

here is, can David Coulthard get ahead as a result of this round of pit stops?

The first round of pit stops. We're watching. David Coulthard goes by our

commentary box as Jean Alacy comes out. And we're going to see who... Here they

go. Coulthard on your right, Alacy on the left. Coulthard was behind Alacy and

he still is. Well, I'm afraid that that has not worked in Williams' favour at

all. In fact, Coulthard's probably lost a little bit of ground. It's not...

much, but he still will catch up for Lacey, because Lacey's tyres will take

about half a lap to get up to speed. They're heated, but even so, I think

we'll see Coulthard come right up on the back of the Ferrari, but can he get by?

Well, Lacey, of course, is on tyres which are not fully up to race

temperature, not very far off it. We're with David Coulthard now, on our way

down to the Stowe corner, into the Vale, to the left hand of a Ford Club.

He's pushing as hard as he possibly can, because he knows...

As we ride with David Coulthard, he knows that Lacey has just been in and

now is his chance to do his best.

Damon Hill, meantime, on lap 20 is 20 seconds. Remember the lap, and that's

the number of seconds that Damon Hill will be ahead of the second-place man if

he maintains the fantastic pace that he's been forcing in this race so far.

We're one third of the way through it. Now, this is fascinating now, because

Alessi has pulled off, so Schumacher has had a clear track, and as a result of

that, Schumacher has taken one second off the lead of Damon Hill. It was 20.5,

it's now 19.6, so... Schumacher is now on a charge and closing on Damon Hill.

But the question is, is Hill coming out? And I think he will be coming out for

his first pit stop in the next lap or two.

And again, we still have to wait to see whether or not Schumacher does. Because

although Hill clearly has a big advantage from that 18 laps with Alessi

holding up Schumacher, if Schumacher is only making one stop and Hill makes two,

in which case Hill will come in in the next couple of laps, it could be still

very, very close indeed.

And don't think that Michael Schumacher is going to be rattled by the fact that

he was in third place for so long and he's now second, or rattled by the fact

that Damon Hill was 20 seconds ahead of him. I say was because it's now 19.

Michael Schumacher is a very cool, calculating operator. He knows the score

exactly. He is older beyond his years in terms of Grand Prix racing. In this, his

60th Grand Prix, but we look at Johnny Herbert, who is now... Now 3.4 seconds

behind his team leader Michael Schumacher. Herbert in third position,

Schumacher in second. There are people here who say that the Benetton team in

effect use Johnny Herbert as...

A poor guy because they send him out with a heavier load of fuel to enable

them to have a wide window to bring him in.

And into the pit lane comes Gerhard Berger in the Ferrari for

his fuel and tyres.

He was in fifth position when he came in.

Mark Blundell will take his place.

Berger sits there impassively. And this time, no problem.

They have got the fuel nozzle in. You'll notice it's on the other side of the car

from France.

Out he goes, 12 seconds. The V12 engine of the Ferrari, of course, is a thirsty

engine. And Akinan is out. What Paul Morgan said of the Ilmore concern,

which makes the Mercedes engine, seems to be right. Very quick, but they were

worried about reliability.

I'm assuming that it was engine, but Mika is very sensibly...

Driving off the course, so the engine is at least running as Schumacher charges.

And we've got real excitement coming up now because with David Coulthard having

stopped, with Berger having stopped, with Alessi having stopped, we know...

that both Michael Schumacher and Hill will be coming in shortly because their

pit crews are down in the light and Gerhard Berger is out of the British

Grand Prix on lap 22 out of 61 one Ferrari down is the other one going to

last John Lacey is in 7th position now and the race or 6th position because

Damon Hill going faster yet is responding to Schumacher into the pits

comes Johnny Herbert

By the way, Gerhard Berg was looking at that left front wheel. One can't help

wondering, as it was just after that pit stop, if there was some kind of problem

with the steering, with the wheel of that Ferrari.

we'll get a different view from another angle but Johnny Herbert there now

that's consistent with doing two stops and the question is still we don't know

is Schumacher doing one is he doing two he looks like he should be doing two but

the next one to come in is and there is Michael Schumacher no he's not I beg

your pardon but it looks like it is going to be Damon Hill coming in for his

first stop within the next lap but look at Herbert behind him is Alisi behind

him is Coulthard so Johnny Herbert has rejoined in front of the Ferrari and in

front of the Williams he came in in third position and he came in some 12

seconds behind Schumacher but as they come down the hangar straight to snow

corner with David Coulthard behind the yellow 40 looking to get past the Lacey

into the pit lane comes race leader Damon Hill for his critical pit stop

it's absolutely essential he's got an 18 second lead that the Williams team just

take it easy don't panic get the wheels off carefully put the new ones on

carefully Get the fuel nozzle in. They've done that. No problem. The fuel

is flowing.

10 or 11 seconds is going to be all right.

And beautiful.

Damon Hill, 11 seconds. And he's going to rejoin the race very probably in

front of Michael Schumacher. There's a 75 mile an hour speed limit in the pit

lane. And Damon Hill will be keeping the speed limiter controlled. That is a

Tyrrell behind.

Don't worry.

But now, I can't tell you at the moment, Damon Hill is back on the track and

there is Michael Schumacher down the hangar straight.

Damon Hill may have lost the lead.

but he's been in for new tyres and wheels, and he's only a few seconds

behind Schumacher, who has yet to stop.

Damon Hill is still effectively leading the British Grand Prix.

And I'm looking at the Benetton pit as Mark Blundell goes out. That's Mark

Blundell's first stop, the sole running McLaren now. The Benetton pit are

getting ready for a pit stop, and that obviously has to be Michael Schumacher.

Herbert's been in, and that is going to be good news for Damon Hill, because

that means that Schumacher wasn't running that pace that he was with just

one stop.

and so it means that Hill's advantage of some 17, in fact it was 18.5 seconds

before Hill came in for that stop.

That's going to still be maintained, and what we need to see is that when, as I

suspect, Schumacher comes in, either, probably not at the end of this lap, the

lap after for his stop, to see what that gap's going to be. Clearly Schumacher

now ahead, but he's going to be stopping, and when he does so, he's

going to drop back behind Damon Hill. The question is, how far?

Great leader, world champion.

Benetton right now now I remember when the warm

up was happening Jonathan was looking very carefully at the lap times of

Schumacher and said I've got a hunch that he could be stopping once if he

stays out much longer that could well be the case he's coming up behind the new

Grand Prix driver Max Parnis the Italian

in the arrow's heart, who has replaced Gianni Morbidelli.

Well, I'm just beginning to wonder whether or not Benetton's tactics go as

far as trying to confuse us, because having been playing around with the

refuelling nozzle, we've got some of the mechanics with their balaclavas on, the

fireproof goggles, and now they seem to have walked away from it. So it doesn't

look at the moment as if another fuel stop for Schumacher is imminent. But

they tend to keep themselves, they tend to keep cagey about their plans. Having

said that, it looks...

We're with Coulthard now and Alessi is ahead. And this is going to be very,

very frustrating for David Coulthard because, again, he's been much quicker

than Alessi most of the time. Here is a possible chance to get by there into

Stoke. This is the point. This is the most likely opportunity.

However,

it does look as if Coulthard is now destined. That's one of the Pacific

that's off there.

Coulthard is destined to follow Alessi unless he can find a way by for another

18 or so laps.

It's Montemini, I think.

But anyway, as we ride with David Coulthard, who is now in fifth position,

the race order on lap 25 out of 61 is Michael Schumacher not having stopped.

is 7.8 seconds ahead of Damon Hill, who of course has stopped.

Johnny Herbert is still third, having stopped and rejoined in front of this

battle that we're looking at. A Lacey fourth and Coulthard fifth.

And up into sixth position, into the points, comes Heinz-Harold Frentzen in

the Salva Ford.

And here is some exclusive news for your ears alone.

Ford are to introduce a V10.

cylinder Grand Prix engine next year and an updated one V8 for this

year in Hockenheim.

Meantime, there is a lacy fourth followed by Coulthard in fifth position.

Right, well I'm thinking now actually looking at what's going on in that

Benetton pit that they are indeed getting ready for a pit stop for Michael

Schumacher. But not with a tremendous sense of urgency.

We're now at lap. He's done 24 laps. This will be his 25th lap. This is a 60

-lap race. One-third distance would have been 20 laps.

And I'm now pretty sure that what we're looking at is a single stop for Michael

Schumacher. I think it will happen in the next two laps. As we originally

wondered, one stop, roundabout lap 26, 27, 28.

would fit the picture of the morning warm-up times. And that's going to

really mean that the race is going to take a fascinating twist because Hill is

committed to making two stops. He's currently 7.8 seconds behind Schumacher.

Let's see. This is Schumacher. He comes past that Benison pit.

There's the Benison pit signal. He has his helmet as his recognition sign for

the pit board.

And it will be either the end of this lap or the one after. I think Schumacher

will come in for his one and only stop.

And that will then put him some 30 seconds a bit longer because he'll spend

longer in the pits. In fact, he'll probably spend 12 or 13, 12 seconds at

rest, I would think, putting in more fuel because he's got to go. If I'm

right, he's got to go a bit more than half distance on the fuel that he'll put

into that car.

And should that be so, it will mean that Michael Schumacher was driving a pretty

storming race, to put it mildly, keeping up with Jean Lacey, with Schumacher

having a much heavier fuel load.

He's being caught by Damon Hill at the moment on lap 26 out of 61, but by very

little. The gap now is 7.6 seconds between Schumacher leading Hill second,

8.6 seconds according to that.

And they're updating the lap of this information a bit more recent than ours.

In which case, Schumacher is maintaining the gap. He's going to be very, very

close indeed when Hill comes in and goes out.

Yes, as we still watch it, David Coulthard trying to find a way past John

Alessi in vain today. Let's just hope that he doesn't get too impetuous. And

again, this is coming into Stoke Corner. That is the most likely ever taking

opportunity. That's why he was so close coming up to Club Corner.

But David...

Damon Hill is actually now closing by about 0.4 of a second. He's not quite

taking half a second off that lead of Michael Schumacher.

And we should bear in mind that Hill's car is actually quite a bit heavier than

Schumacher's at the moment because Hill is only some...

four or five laps in from taking on his fuel load, whereas Schumacher is going

to have to come in within the next two or three laps. So his fuel load is

virtually empty, therefore his car is very light. But on the debit side, he

does have, still, despite having a car that's light, he's also got worn-out

tyres, relatively worn-out tyres, whereas Hill's are fresh. So it's

probably a fairly even comparison between the two.

You watch on Alessi, who is fourth. David Coulthard challenging him, fifth.

And in Canada, of course, Alessi was David Coulthard's, caught the cause of

David's downfall on the second lap.

Alessi was pushing him so hard that David Coulthard spun out of the race. So

revenge would be sweet for the young Scotsman from Twynham if he could get

past the Ferrari.

But we're on lap 27 now. Things are comparatively static at the moment, but

they won't be for very much longer. With Michael Schumacher now 9.3 seconds

ahead. He's pulled out another 8 tenths of a second.

Over the heavier Williams Renault of Damon Hill. Who is second.

Johnny Herbert with that superb pit stop. Still remains in third position.

Ahead of Alessi. Seven and a half seconds ahead of Alessi. Who is fourth.

And you know how close Coulthard is in fifth position to Alessi. Heinz Harrell

-Frentzen is still seventh.

He's still sixth.

Mark Blundell going well in the other McLaren, going extremely well. He's been

in the points twice this year in a situation where he didn't even expect to

be racing in 1995, having lost his seat for Tyrrell. But then he got the McLaren

drive when Mansell decided he was going to race no more in Formula One, this

year anyway.

And Blundell is seventh. Barrichello is eighth.

Parnis is ninth.

Martini is 10th. Max Pappis, incidentally not Parnas, is in 11th

place. And Luca Badur in the Minardi is 12th. And the leaders have lapped

everybody up to Rubens Barrichello, who is 8th in spite of his penalty stop.

And Schumacher is really charging. He's using up these last few laps with his

light fuel load. He's pulled out two and a half seconds over Damon in the last

two laps.

Damon was seven and a half seconds behind Schumacher on lap 25 and is now

10.1 as we've seen.

So this is really looking very, very exciting indeed. It's going to be close

and I'm sure that at this stage the Williams team are on the radio to Damon.

He will have been very well aware by now that Schumacher is on a one-stop

strategy. So the message is, Damon, charge.

And back with Coulthard again. Damon will be thinking coolly about the

tactical implications of the fact that Schumacher is going to be making one

stop, it would seem to us, and that he has got to come in a second time.

And in spite of the fact that he got a 20-second lead over Schumacher, that has

been eroded to half that now.

And of the top six, only two...

have not come in. Those two are Michael Schumacher, who's leading the race,

Heinz-Harold Frentzen, who is in sixth position, because Hill, second, Herbert,

third, Alessi, Paul, Coulthard, fifth, have all been in to take on new tyres

and fuel. And I think, personally, that this race is giving the lie to the

people who say that the pit stops decrease the interest in Grand Prix

racing. There is a danger if they're out there all the time, non-stop for the

whole race, that there is going to be a boring procession with nobody passing

anybody. At least with these pit stops, they are passing. It may be that they're

passing when they're stationary in the pit lane, but the fact is that a new

race is being created in effect all the time, and the modern Grand Prix is a

series of free sprints. The cars are at their lightest. The drivers have to be

supremely fit.

to be driving at 10 tenths virtually for the whole race, whereas before, the

tactics used to be very, very different. You pay your money and you take your

choice, but that's my opinion. And that is Jean-Christophe Bouillon, the

Frenchman in the Sauber Ford, which, as I said, is to have an updated engine at

Hockenheim. He's in 14th place.

He's the Williams test driver so he gets a lot of Grand Prix racing and testing

one way and another with Williams and with Sauber and he's been caught and

will soon be lapped by the third place Benetton of Johnny Herbert.

Now here's Heinz-Harold Frentzen. He's the ex-Mercedes-Benz sports car driver.

He is in sixth position.

A lot of people say that he is as quick as Schumacher. He's not as steady as

Schumacher, but he's already been in the points three times this year with

Argentina and at Monaco and at the San Marino Grand Prix. And sadly, the

Sauber... is just not up to his talent.

The engine's good, we know that, because the Ford V8 engine, Zetec, which propels

his Sauber, propelled the Benetton, which won the championship last year.

We're back again with Coulthard. Lap 30, this is the half-distance lap, and he is

still fifth behind Alessio Ferrari, which you see in front of him.

And this is looking another very, very impressive Schumacher-Benetton

demonstration. Schumacher continues to eke out that lead over Damon Hill. It's

now 11.5 seconds.

But let's just consider what's going to happen, because Schumacher must come in

in the next two or three laps. I know I've been saying that, but it really has

to happen in the next lap or two. When he does so, he's now got his 11-second,

let's call it a 10-second lead over Damon Hill. He's going to lose roughly

30 seconds coming into the pits.

So he's going to end up coming out of the pits second. Hill's going to go

ahead. Schumacher will be 20 seconds behind then Hill. And then

Hill then has to come in for a second pit stop. And that's going to put Hill

10 seconds behind Schumacher with all pit stops completed. Leaving Hill with

his lighter fuel load to then try and charge up and then try and get by. And

that's the new driver, Pappis, Massimiliano Pappis, who's taken over

from Morbidelli in the footwork having gone off his first Grand Prix. No great

surprise there. It's going to be very, very close. That's the bottom line of

it. between Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher and Hill is going to have to

race for it. There are the Bennington team getting ready.

Indeed. And the man they're getting ready for is there.

It's Michael Schumacher, the race leader. He's 12 seconds ahead of Damon

Hill.

He's coming up towards the pit lane where he will peel off.

Steady as a rock in the Benetton.

Now he's coming up to Abbey, the left-hander.

Then there's the complex of Priory, Brooklands. And here is Max Pappas. Look

at his left rear.

It's punctured.

And it's about to come off, I suspect. Come off the rim altogether as he turns

into the right-hander. His right front wheel is right off the ground. And now

he's collapsed his left front suspension.

Unsurprisingly, he's touted out of control. Ploughed across the gravel and

out of the race. And I think Pappas may have hit something before that because

for the left front suspension to break like that and indeed to have that look

like a damaged rim as in comes Schumacher. Now we're going to see what

happens. Will Damon Hill...

get through of course he will the gap is 12 seconds as Michael Schumacher with a

lot of practice having done this calmly comes up to exactly the right spot the

Benetton there are 18 of them working on that car on the four wheels and tyres on

the fuel line and there is Damon Howell And Damon Hill takes the lead in the

British Grand Prix.

But as Schumacher exits after a 13 second stop. Now that's a long pit stop.

Because he's had to take on a lot of fuel.

He came in on lap 32.

So he's come in at almost exactly half distance in this 61 lap race.

And Damon Hill takes the lead. But he has still got to come in again.

Damon at Stowe Corner.

Damon at Stowe as Schumacher exits the pit lane. So Damon is leading by as

near as makes very little difference, half a lap. That's one and a half miles

on this three mile lap. And there's Michael Schumacher back up to race pace.

And he is on his 32nd lap. It's going to be a fascinating finish.

All the top seven men have now come in. In fact, all the top ten men have come

in. Rubens Barrichello has stopped twice.

Once for fuel and tyres and once for that penalty.

And Olivier Parnis has done the same thing.

Barrichello is in seventh place.

And Damon Hill, race leader, there he is on his 32nd lap.

goes through to complete it coming up to Woodcote over the grid markings now

be able to give you the gap P1 place 1 lap 29 laps to go that means

he will be getting a countdown now because there is an insurance policy

working they give him signals through his eyes and they give him signals

through his ears

Now that was another immaculate pit stop from the Benetton team, but what we need

to watch closely now is the lap times that both Schumacher and Hill are doing,

because now the situation is reversed in that Michael Schumacher has a heavy fuel

load with the new tyres, Damon Hill has about half a tank of fuel, or certainly

has about 50 litres of fuel, so he should be quite a bit quicker on fuel,

but his tyres won't be in quite such good condition.

Now, Hill's last lap was a 1 minute 30.4, and that was a clear lap.

And David Coulthard still being frustrated there with John Alessi in the

Ferrari ahead. It's Alessi in fourth, Coulthard in fifth. And we need to

follow to see closely what Schumacher does.

And Hill would like to think he can try and extend that gap over Schumacher

because when Schumacher was light on old tyres, he was running faster than Hill,

a bit heavier on new tyres.

You saw the clouds on that shot looking back.

from Damon Hill's car at his head. I'm being a bit of a pessimist, I know, but

we must never lose sight of the fact that we've had very changeable weather

here at Silverstone through Friday and Saturday and this morning. There were

actually a few spots of rain. It could easily happen again, in which case it

would dramatically transform the character of the race. A race which has

been fascinating for every turn of the wheel so far.

David Coulthard cannot do anything about Jean Alessi. The V12 Scarlett Ferrari

stays ahead of the Williams, and that is a testimony to how well the Ferrari

people at Maranello have been working. They have just quietly made this car

better and better in terms of handling.

They've made the engine better and better in terms of not just power, but

in terms of reliability and drivability.

There's no point in having an engine with a lot of power if you have to rev

its head off in order to get that power. You want an engine which gives you power

all the way through the scale.

Lap 34, and it's a lacy fourth with Coulthard fifth.

Turns into Copse. Damon Hill has just done the fastest lap of the race. He is

responding with his fuel load to Michael Schumacher. The gap is 21 seconds.

If Damon Hill's going to win this race, he's going to need to set a few more

fastest laps. But yet, we're now on lap 33.

Hill has got a 21-second lead over Michael Schumacher.

But I'm pretty sure that Hill's going to need to come in for his second stop. I

suspect it'll be round about lap 40 probably. That's another seven laps

away. And ideally, Hill needs to get about 30 seconds ahead, 28, 30 seconds

ahead of Michael Schumacher.

so that maybe even more than that, 32 seconds, I should say, to be sure that

when Hill comes in for a pit stop, he can come out ahead of Michael

Schumacher. And whether or not Hill can pull out enough of a lead now to emerge

from his second pit stop, don't forget Schumacher will not need to stop again.

Yes, that'll be round about lap 37, 38, 39. That's when we're going to expect to

see Hill's second stop.

And if Hill does not fail to, if Hill does not...

managed to pull out that margin of at least, I would say, 27, 28 seconds. In

the next five laps, I would think he's destined to pull out of the pits behind

Michael Schumacher, and that could be absolutely crucial to the result of this

race.

It could be goodbye, Mum, as far as victory is concerned for Damon Hill,

because Michael Schumacher in the lead after what happened to him last year in

the British Grand Prix is not going to yield easily. But that's all in the

future. Mum is here, incidentally. Betty Hill.

Her great husband, Graham Hill, twice a world champion, never a winner of the

British Grand Prix, which Damon Hill, her son, was last year.

And still David Coulthard is stuck behind Alisi, remorselessly holding his

line, maintaining his speed.

Those are very interesting figures.

You see Damon Hill again, astonishingly consistent.

And we're with Coulthard again, turning into Stowe Corner, slowing down from 180

miles an hour in just a few metres, and I mean a few metres, to 70 miles an

hour. Well, the Hill-Schumacher battle is the one right at the front, but

there's also a very good battle shaping up for third place because we've got

Johnny Herbert, who's 6.3 seconds ahead of Alessi, with, of course, Coulthard

right behind Alessi. But the exciting news is that Alessi is closing that gap

on Johnny Herbert. He's been taking half a second a lap off over the last four

laps. And so both... And the other thing is that all of these three cars,

Herbert, Alessi and Coulthard, are all on two-stop strategies.

Therefore, they are all going to have to make a stop in the next five laps.

And that, again, is going to be absolutely vital in terms of who comes

out on top. And Williams are going to be wrecking their brains to try and work

out how can they get David Coulthard ahead of John Alessi. Their chance to do

it has got to come from the pit stops, I believe, because it really is not

happening on the track.

How is Damon Hill here doing in terms of building that 28-second necessary gap

between himself and Michael Schumacher to ensure the continuation of his lead?

Not very well, I have to tell you. The gap is 22 seconds now.

And it's not going to be very much longer before he comes in and lets

Schumacher retake the lead.

Damon Hill led for a long, long time. 22nd gap. Lost the lead to Schumacher.

Regained it and is there now. And that is Schumacher being held up by Jean

-Christophe Bouillon.

And any holding up would be very gratefully accepted by Damon Hill and

the Williams team.

But Schumacher picks his moment carefully. Jean-Christophe Boullion is a

pretty experienced driver in terms of Formula 3000 and the other categories.

And he goes through.

and Damon Hill on lap 37 has gone faster again another new fastest lap for Damon

who knows exactly what the score is there it is 1 minute 30 seconds the next

fastest lap is going to be the first one of the race in under 1.30 as Schumacher

goes across the line and the gap has increased now it's 23.9 seconds

But Hill must be coming in just in the next few laps. He's on his 37th lap now.

Well, let's certainly hope that Damon Hill says that he's not going to come in

in the next two or three laps, because if he can get as far as around about lap

40, lap 42, he might have had a chance to pull out enough of a margin, and this

is what he will be determined to do at this stage. There's the man, Damon Hill.

Just to try and stay out a bit longer. And that's the kind of thing that

Benetton with Michael Schumacher would do. To pull out the gap. So when he does

come in for this second stop. He can get out again ahead of Michael Schumacher.

And that gap between Herbert and Alessi is closing.

Alessi is now within 5.7 seconds. He's taken another couple of tenths of a

second off Johnny Herbert.

And again just to remind you. We've got to look for these pit stops. For Johnny

Herbert, Alessi, Coulthard and Damon Hill.

Over the next five laps.

And the longer Damon Hill can stay out, the less fuel he will have to take on.

And that means to say the shorter period he will be in the pitch. It's all very,

very interesting and exciting indeed.

We're on lap 38 now.

Hill is 24 seconds ahead of Schumacher, who is 13 seconds ahead of his teammate,

Johnny Herbert.

Benetton's second and third. That's good from their point of view. Ten

Constructors World Championship points.

And here is Damon Hill.

That's the inside of him. You see his hands in the cockpit.

And this is really worth watching because Damon Hill is piling on the

pressure. Look at that, 29.7. He knows that the British Grand Prix depends on

his ability over the next five laps to pull out whatever he can to extend that

critical margin over Michael Schumacher. He's not doing a bad job. He's up to 25

seconds. Another four or five laps of that kind of level of improvement and

he's going to be standing a very good chance. And let's see, now he comes up.

We're looking at him trying to get by Moreno.

the relative speed there of the williams car compared that's one of the that's

the best car in formula one arguably the worst car in formula one and he comes in

this is 150 miles an hour through that bridge corner down on the brakes

flipping his left left hands left fingers uh to change down to second gear

through the second of these two left handers there that's the priory up third

gear this is 80 miles an hour Luffield 1 now coming to Luffield 2 and then he

pulls on to the main start finish straight and you can see again his left

hand there that will be used for down changing and his right hand at the

moment will be flipping away at that steering wheel operated gear change

mechanism as he comes up to 180 miles an hour down to third gear for Cox Corner.

Now he is on his 39th lap and Michael Schumacher is coming up to complete his

38th lap. The gap was 25 seconds. Has Damon Hill eked out another few

tenths? And pulled away further from Michael Schumacher. Getting towards that

magic 28 seconds. Over the line goes Schumacher. And there is activity in the

Williams pit. There they are. They're getting ready to receive Damon Hill in.

Schumacher has gone through. The gap is exactly the same. Because to within

100th of a second. Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher. Did their 38th lap.

Identically to each other.

The dominance of these two in Grand Prix racing is superb in

1994 and 1995.

Ferrari are ready for Alessi. Williams are ready for Damon Hill.

Now here he is climbing up the gradient at Silverstone, turning.

And there, that's Damon Hill. Now I'm pretty sure he's coming in this lap.

That is the left hander.

He'll be coming in to this lap.

Luffield.

And now is he going to turn in?

No, he is not. Damon Hill goes through again.

Well, I'm pleased to see Damon Hill go by because that gives him another few

laps to try and extend that advantage over Michael Schumacher for his sake.

And that would indicate that the Williams crew are getting ready for

David Coulthard's second stop. And so, once again, we're going to have Alassian

Coulthard with a way things look coming in for their second and final stops on

exactly the same lap.

And when we come up to Damon Hill's pit stop, when Hill comes out of the pit

lane, when he comes out of Copp, down towards Beckett...

What we see in terms of the gap between Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher is how

it will remain for the balance of the race, because neither will have any more

pit stops to go from then on. It's a straight race to the flag.

Meantime, let me bring you up to speed on retirements in the British Grand

Prix. Eddie Irvine is out. Pedro Diniz is out. Taki Inouye is out.

Alessi is coming in.

Martin Brundle is out. So are Berger, Hakkinen, Montemini, Katayama, Pappis.

And there are 15 runners left, and one of them, Jean Alessi, comes in from

fourth position, which he's now lost because Coulthard has moved up to

fourth.

And I can tell you that there is no doubt that it is Damon Hill that the

Williams pit are waiting to receive because their tyres have got DHL

written on them. And here is DH Damon Hill.

Going through again, yet again.

In, in, in.

This time, Damon.

And that will be lap 41. There's only going to be 20 laps left for Damon to do

when he comes in, having completed his second stop. And he's now leading

Schumacher, who's again matching him second for second by 25 seconds.

So as Williams driver Damon Hill completes his last lap on this stint,

this provides the opportunity for David Coulthard to really charge now. He has

not got Alessi ahead of him. He can try and pull out the kind of margin, maybe

one second, two seconds, maybe three if he's lucky. That means that when

Coulthard comes in for his stop, which we now know must be at least two away,

he's got a very good chance of getting ahead eventually of Jean Alessi.

Damon Hill behind.

Pierluigi Martini. That was a bad sign.

And into the pit lane comes the Benetton of Johnny Herbert from fourth position.

And that means to say that Alessi will regain that fourth place. Johnny Herbert

well in the points again. He's had a second place in the Benetton this year.

Taking their time.

And Kenny Hankema sprints away from the front of the Benetton to allow a free

track for Johnny Herbert.

as one of the lapped Pacifics goes through.

And this is Damon Hill. And this is the lap that Damon Hill is going to come in

on. And this is the pit stop which could decide who wins the British Grand Prix

of 1995.

We're in with Hill, leading by 25 seconds, or he was when he turned off.

That gap is decreasing now because he slows down and stops.

Up goes the board that lifts the front of the car.

The jack at the back lifts it. In goes the fuel hose.

Quiet. Keep steady, chaps.

Nice one.

11 seconds.

Where's Damon? Where is Schumacher?

There he is. He's going to take the lead. He's going to pass Damon.

And they are within

sight of each other as Schumacher comes down the hangar straight behind Olivier

Parnis. who has been lapped. He's in eighth position in the Lige. The battle

is on now for world championship points for the world championship leadership

and victory in the British Grand Prix. It's going to be a nail-biting last few

laps. And Schumacher really smokes his tongue. That may well have flat-spotted

it and thrown it.

There's a few spots of rain. That's the answer. There's a few spots of rain at

Stowe. My Jerry Meyer forecast may become... he's done it again i

think that's a reflection not so much of the rain but of schumacher knowing he is

really under pressure now he's ahead schumacher has the advantage but both

these cars have the same amount of fuel on board now because they both have

enough have to have enough to get to the end of the race the difference between

the cars is that damon hill is on brand new tires effectively fresh tires

schumacher's tires have already done

another 10 laps, so they're not going to be as good a condition as Damon Hill. We

can see on the camera lens now, we can see a few spots of rain.

The clouds don't look heavy, but the rain could build up relatively quickly,

and this could provide another fascinating twist to these final 18 laps

now of the British Grand Prix.

Keep your fingers crossed that we do not have a downpour. That would spoil what

is going to be a brilliant climax to the British Grand Prix. The leader and the

second-place man, Schumacher and Hill.

within just a few yards of each other and as Jonathan has said as we look at

them Schumacher at the top of your screen Damon Hill on the left down the

hangar straight the fastest part of the course and this is where traffic could

make all the difference and Schumacher is coming up to somebody if he is not

seen and if he is balked even to the slightest degree Damon Hill will

maximise his opportunity he looks as though he was closer than he was there

because of course Schumacher breaks before Damon Hill does and accelerates

earlier and now the gap remains the same and it's Parnis in the Ligier in 7th

position who they are catching.

He's very quick.

He's got the Mugen engine, which is very powerful.

But let's not forget David Coulthard's pit stop. That's due to happen in the

next lap, and when Coulthard comes out, we need to see if he can get ahead of

Alessi, because in the same way that we've got the Hill-Schumacher battle,

we've got the Coulthard-Alessi one, and with then Johnny Herbert as well.

Coulthard, we'll need to see how Coulthard compares to both Herbert and

Alessi.

They're on lap 43.

Schumacher leads.

Hill second.

Parnis has gone into the pits. Coulthard is third. Herbert is fourth. Alessi is

fifth. Mark Blundell is up to a superb sixth place in the McLaren Mercedes.

He's in the points again. The doughty Mark Blundell, who is underestimated as

a driver and is doing superbly here as we ride with Hill, chasing race leader

Michael Schumacher.

And from the gaps we've got, Coulthard is 24.7 seconds ahead of Johnny Herbert.

But this is a late stop for David Coulthard. And in he comes. He won't be

stopping too long. My guess, nine seconds. I think he'll be out right

alongside Herbert and ahead of John Alessi.

Up go the Reds. Out goes the Williams.

Tyres smoking, burning rubber.

And there is Johnny Herbert.

Johnny Herbert ahead of David Coulthard.

And Johnny Herbert is going through ahead. There is Jean Alessi. So Herbert

is up into third place.

And Coulthard is up into fourth. Alessi is in fifth position.

Fascinating. This is lap 44 out of 61.

Between Schumacher and Hill, there were seven tenths of a second. And look at

him now. Look at this. We're with Damon Hill. And that is the joke. Michael

Schumacher ahead, the world champion.

Damon Hill fighting for his second successive British Grand Prix victory

out of Woodcote. And there's somebody ahead of Michael Schumacher.

It is Bouillon, the French driver.

And now Damon says, I'm with you, Michael.

And he's on new tyres, newer tyres than Michael Schumacher.

And through the back, it's this magnificent complex.

And Damon is pushing, pushing, pushing. Remember what happened in Australia last

year when Damon Hill was as close as this to Michael Schumacher.

Schumacher got rattled. Schumacher went off and...

They're now right up behind the server.

And what was interesting there was that Schumacher, to my mind, deliberately

slowed a little on the last part of Beckett's. Hill was falling all over the

back of him to make sure that Schumacher got the fast exit from the last part of

Beckett's because he knows that into the right hand of Beckett's and we're one

corner on is the best chance for overtaking. And he wanted to make sure

that, A, he got by Bouillon, and secondly, that he didn't give Damon Hill

the chance to take a run up alongside him.

Was that kick for tap? Because Schumacher was very angry with Damon

Hill in the French Grand Prix for giving him, Schumacher, what he said was a

brake test.

As they came up to lap Roberto Moreno, Hill backed off and Hill closes right up

on Schumacher now. Hill backed off and when you back off in a Formula One car,

there's no flywheel effect in the engines. It's just as though you put the

brakes on. And Schumacher had to do just that in France.

So maybe he was looking very closely at Damon Hill.

This is the best battle of any Grand Prix this year.

It's Mark Blundell that's now in front of Michael Schumacher, but to have at

two-thirds distance the two arch rivals separated by one to two seconds is

absolutely fantastic.

With Damon Hill on his home ground, pumped up as much as any driver ever can

be, Michael Schumacher knows too that this is the time when he needs to prove,

if he believes it, that he's the best driver, and it's all going to happen in

the next 15 laps here at Silverton.

Down the hangar's cliff.

Schumacher, rightly or wrongly, believes that the British Grand Prix last year

was taken away from him unfairly due to that black flag incident.

That's a point of view thing as well, but he's going to be just as determined

to stay ahead of Damon as Damon is going to be determined to get past him.

And it's going to make an enormous difference in World Championship terms

because if Schumacher can stay ahead of him and win the British Grand Prix...

he will increase his world championship lead of 11 points by 4 points. If Damon

Hill could get past Michael Schumacher and win, it would decrease the gap from

11 points to 7 points.

Oh, what's happened? Damon's lost it, has he?

Stops. Off.

They're both off.

Who's that?

Is that a Tyrrell or is it Schumacher? They're both off, they're both out.

Now, you suddenly saw Damon Hill's steering wheel whirl about in his hands.

Now, whether they collided or not, I do not know.

But whatever.

Well, hang on, hang on. We're going to show you what happened.

Schumacher waves his hand in disgust. Now, this is it. Here they are.

Schumacher on the left. Damon Hill on the right.

Damon attacks.

Attacks. Goes through on the inside.

Contact.

Now there's going to be a big, big argument about that.

Damon Hill will say, I was close enough to get through on the inside.

Schumacher will say, in no way were you. But the result is, of course, that

Johnny Herbert is leading the British Grand Prix.

Well, I think looking at that, Damon Hill was really far too far away. Let's

have another look now. This is through the 150 miles an hour bridge corner.

Look, he's a long way away from Michael Schumacher.

I don't know quite what was going through his mind there, but certainly

Schumacher braked relatively early, but Schumacher turns in.

Damon really has committed himself in a big way to come up the inside there, and

unless Schumacher had some kind of a problem that we don't know about that

caused him to brake very early, and he was certainly braking a little bit

early. I don't think his handling of his car was that good, but that was, to my

mind, far too much of an opportunist maneuver, I'm afraid, for Damon Hill

there. There were still 14 laps to go of the British Grand Prix, and if there was

a time for that kind of do-or-die maneuver, it was going to be a lot later

on in the race than that and I really find it I think probably Damon saw

Michael slow and thought he had half a chance and committed himself let's have

another look there he comes up the inside but he's going too quickly he

just cannot stop he's committing himself too early that's the way it looked to me

well what a pity but for Michael Schumacher

and Damon Hill as Damon dejectedly walks in

and do I detect from his body language that maybe he felt he was being a bit

precipitate or maybe reading something into his stance well he's fed up you see

he pulls the tube away from his helmet

Just as in 1993 he saw the British Grand Prix slip from his grasp so it has in

1995. But for Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher now read Johnny Herbert

and David Coulthard because there is a new Benetton and Williams battle for

victory in the British Grand Prix and you are looking at it. Johnny Herbert

leading the man.

who so many people including myself have tipped as a Grand Prix star of the

future for a long long time with the man who is undoubtedly a Grand Prix star of

the present and we're riding with David Coulthard some people have said this is

going to be David Coulthard's first Grand Prix victory it's his 16th career

race there are 16 races in the season Damon

almost home but it means that his world championship gap to Michael Schumacher

has been unchanged it remains at 11 points and the Williams team's hopes are

now in the capable 24 year old hands of Scotsman David Coulthard chasing

Johnny Herbert who will know that it's down to him to get 10 world championship

points for Benetton Johnny siding his way through the traffic

And Coulthard right in his wheel tracks.

And again, if Coulthard had had any space to go by, he would have gone by

Johnny Herbert then. Now that is Heinz-Harold Cranston, the salvo driver,

ahead of Johnny Herbert there.

And these cars, the Benetton of Herbert.

And the Williams of Coulthard, they both have the same Renault engine. They're

the same speed on the straights. Neither of them have got any more pit stops to

go. And Coulthard comes to have a look at the inside, just like Damon Hill

tried to do.

Exactly the same place, but this time they kept away from each other. And I

can tell you this, there are some spots of rain falling on lap 48 of the 61-lap

incident-filled British Grand Prix.

Over the line to complete the lap and start another one.

leads Coulthard second. They're coming up to Fredson and Coulthard is now

effectively 30 seconds behind Johnny Herbert because he has exceeded the

75 mile an hour pit lane speed limit and that means to say

that with John Alaci seven and a half seconds behind Coulthard and therefore

the same amount behind Johnny Herbert, Johnny's...

Basically got to keep the car going to come home to win the British Grand Prix.

David Coulthard doesn't know about his penalty.

And what a pity.

He fights and Johnny Herbert fights back. He doesn't know either, of course.

They think they're fighting for the lead. What a pity they're not. What a

pity they're not.

Oh, Coulthard passes Herbert, who tries to repass and fails.

Coulthard stays ahead, but he's going to have to come in, and it's going to be a

very downcast Scotsman. The adrenaline must be flowing in buckets full, buckets

full.

But right in your picture, at the back of the picture there, was John Alassian.

Don't think that just because David Coulthard's going to be out of

contention now, that Herbert's going to have it all his own way, because John

Alassian, the Ferrari...

is going to be moving up to second place. He's only seven and a half

seconds behind.

And when John Alessi gets any kind of scent of a win here again, he's going to

be charging that Ferrari around with such panache that it should make great

viewing from our side. So Coulthard may not come in this lap because he may not

have got the message yet. We shall have to watch at the pit board.

We'll have a look at that. He'll be getting the radio message. He won't

believe it. He really won't believe it. He hasn't had an inside then.

It'll be coming through his radio if indeed he's getting it at all. I'm sure

that between Poulthard and the Williams team, they will be professional enough

to make sure that he does come in. But Herbert will have been told, I'm sure.

Herbert will have been told, look, don't worry about David. He's got to come in.

He's going to be losing 30 seconds.

But, on the other hand, Herbert's still got Jean Alessi, who's now only six

seconds behind. And Alessi took one and a half seconds off that battling duo.

And that was probably because they were doing exactly that, battling between

them. Race order. Lap 50. 61 lap race.

Coulthard is leading, but has got to come in for a 10 second penalty.

Johnny Herbert, the second of the two cars you're looking at, will therefore

take the lead. There is a decreasing gap between Herbert's Benetton there and

Jean Alessi's Scarlett Ferrari in third place.

Well, what can one say for Damon that he hasn't already said to

himself many times over?

And now,

look back when you can and you will see a Lacey Coulthard. Now, is he going to

come in this lap?

This is the 50th lap.

And he's coming.

Priory. Brooklands.

Now the last two corners. The last three. Luffield 1, Luffield 2 and

Woodcote.

Now. there is your lady well

what's happening to David Coulthard if he doesn't come in on the next lap he's

going to be in big trouble we've been told there's a penalty his team must

have been told there's a penalty and now he's been told and he won't be

able to believe his eyes and his hard luck having fought his way past Johnny

Herbert magnificently into the lead, which he's now extending because he's

one and a half seconds ahead of Herbert. He's going to have to suffer the

indignity of coming in. Now, why is he going to have to come in? Answer,

because he exceeded the pit lane speed limit. Why did he exceed the limit?

Either because he failed to operate the limiting device, which they do on

entering the pit lane.

Or because it didn't operate properly. I don't know which it is.

But whatever.

David Coulthard is about to lose the lead of the British Grand Prix.

Johnny Herbert will be a few laps away from it. But not if John Alati, who can

sense a second victory, having already won in Canada this year. That was two

races ago.

Can do anything about it. And he will be trying.

And when John Olesi tries.

It is a sight to behold.

So. Coulthard.

Number one. Coming in.

Herbert number two. On the track. And on his car.

And here is. Here is. Poor David Coulthard. Taking his.

Speed limit penalty.

Whilst Johnny Herbert. Goes past him. Into the lead.

John Olesi. Goes past him. Into second place.

He has to go right to the end of the pit lane.

There's the digital device on the right. You just saw the figure 10. Just imagine

the frustration and irritation.

Two, one, go for it!

And he does.

But the die has been cast.

Unless something happens to Herbert and Lacey, the race has been lost for the

Williams team.

For Damon Hill and for David Coulthard. Who will have nevertheless underlined

his superb form and ability in his 16th race of the year. This is the man to

watch now.

Alessi who is second. And the gap has come down from 6 seconds to 4.8 seconds.

And we're on lap 52 out of 61.

This could still be a grand fan finish.

It's at the finish line. It was 4.8 seconds from Herbert to Coulthard, but

then another 1.6 seconds there back to Alethi. And Alethi's actually lost a

little bit of ground on that, and he's going to have to work very hard to try

and get up on terms with Johnny Herbert.

He's got to A, catch him up, and of course B, get by. He's only got nine

laps more now to do it.

And it's my guess that if Johnny Herbert can keep neat, doesn't make any

mistakes. and keeps his nose clean, he can win the British Grand Prix that he

will be totally, totally bemused about. I'm sure of that. And that's not to

discredit Johnny Herbert at all, but he's had a pretty tough time of it this

year. Being number two to Michael Schumacher is not an easy berth for any

driver. But Johnny has been really tremendous about it. He's been a very

solid member of the team. He's accepted his lot and got on there and worked on

his own set-ups with the car, accepting that Michael Schumacher will have the

lion's share of the testing and of the engineering expertise. that's not to say

Johnny's car is not in every way a match for that of Michael Schumacher but

certainly in terms of the psychology of it Schumacher is very much has the upper

hand at the Benetton team but we should also give a mention to fellow British

driver who we haven't seen much of at all Mark Blundell who is up to fourth

place there giving McLaren their best performance of the year so far at the

moment with the Mercedes-Benz engine there Rubens Barrichello is just two and

a half seconds That's Mark Blundell in fourth place. He really is having a

very, very good run of a weekend. He was showing good form in qualifying, closer

to teammate Mika Hakkinen than he's ever been anywhere else. Really rising to the

challenge and trying to do whatever he can. And I think he's done most of it

already here this weekend to cement his position in the McLaren team for the

balance of the year. Because he was originally only a temporary stand-in.

Bit of rain there coming in on the camera. They're going to be watching

their visors to see how many...

drop or have the drops build up. That's going to be the telltale warning sign.

But Blundell wants to prove that he deserves to stay in that McLaren for the

balance of the year. I think he's got a very good chance of doing it. But just

behind him, Rubens Barrichello is only two and a half seconds.

He's taken a second off Blundell's lead in fourth place. Barrichello now only

one and a half seconds behind and I think closing. So the battle is now at

its best for the fourth place between Blundell and Barrichello.

Let's just review the situation on that.

54 out of 61, Johnny Herbert leads.

This is his 71st Grand Prix. This man who has driven for Lotus, for Tyrrell,

for Benetton before, then for the Ligier team, and now for Benetton again.

And it looks as though he really is on his way, because there are nine laps

left, including the one, eight laps left, including the one that he is on.

He is six and a half seconds ahead of Jean Alessi.

If the rain holds off, he's going to be all right because his tyres will be

gripping. David Coulthard is down into third position as a result of that

penalty and he's 19 seconds behind Alessi.

It looks as though the best he and Williams can hope for is a third place.

Mark Blundell, as Jonathan has said, it's a magnificent drive by him in

fourth place.

Because Mark never expected to be in Grand Prix racing this year. But he

still had two finishes in the points this year. A fifth place and a sixth

place. And it looks as though he's going one better already.

But Rubens Barrichello is less than a second now behind the McLaren Mercedes.

As Johnny Herbert swings right to complete his 54th lap.

And now let's see. It was 6.4 seconds between him and Lacey. And as Lacey goes

across the line, it is 6.5 seconds. So Johnny has got things under control at

the moment.

Well, Alessi there, 6.1 seconds behind Herbert that lap. Alessi having taken

off just four tenths of a second. But that's not enough.

Alessi will not get to within two seconds of Johnny Herbert if he

continues to close at that rate.

But thoughts back with Rubens Barrichello there in fifth place.

Barrichello was running in fifth place in last year's British Grand Prix in the

very late stages with a McLaren ahead of him. Except this time it wasn't Mark

Blundell, it was Mika Hakkinen. And on the very last corner of the very last

lap. Hakkinen, or rather Barrichello, tried to come up the inside of Hakkinen.

Hakkinen closed the door. They both spun.

And Barrichello finished the race in fifth place. But in the pit lane, he

didn't realise the race had finished on that lap. And Hakkinen went on to

struggle across with his wounded McLaren to take fourth place. So let's hope that

we don't get that kind of result from this is the battle. Barrichello there.

Blundell ahead. The McLaren-Jordan battle. The McLaren and Jordan have been

vying for supremacy in what I term Division 2. We've got Division 1 and

Benetton. Williams and Ferrari, Division 2 of Jordan and McLaren. Let's see who

comes out on top. It's going to be close. And there's Michael Schumacher

there. Michael Schumacher, understandably looking pretty fed up and

dejected, about to be interviewed by the German commentator.

But Rubens Barrichello, look, this is it. This is the battle for fourth

position, where with fifth place, Rubens Barrichello has already had a second

place in Canada this year.

And I said earlier on, his morale had increased as a result of getting pretty

close to Eddie Irvine.

who had consistently out-qualified and out-raced him. And now Rubens, the

youngest driver in the race, the ex-Carts champion, ex-GM Lotus champion,

ex-British Formula 3 champion, and who did very well in Formula 3000 before

joining the Jordan team in 1993, can see an opportunity to make it fourth place

by getting past Mark Blundell.

But McLaren want the points just as much as Jordan does. Meantime, race leader

Johnny Herman. He's on his 56th lap. He's still over six seconds ahead of

Alessi's Ferrari.

Down to Copse. Lundell, number seven.

Rubens Barrichello, number 14.

McLaren and Jordan. It is getting close. It's getting desperate for Mark Lundell.

Barrichello right up behind him. This is the most difficult part of the course in

terms of handling ability.

And that's where the Jordan in the past this season has been better than McLaren

in the handling area.

But it doesn't seem to be now because the gap between the two of them as they

go down the hangar straight in fourth and fifth place remains the same. Down

the snow corner.

Right up on braking comes Rubens Barrichello. But then Mark Blundell gets

the power on earlier and pulls away again.

Into the veil. The left hander before club.

And again, Barrichello closes up.

Right up. But, but, Mark Blundell knows he's there.

He's got mirrors on either side of his windscreen. There they are, sticking

out.

and he knows Rubens Barrichello is there and he knows how to keep him behind now

coming up to the bridge section which is where Damon Hill had the go at Michael

Schumacher through this right hand and it was into this next left Hill came up

the inside there And Barrichello was a lot closer to Blundell than Hill was to

Schumacher on the approach to that bridge corner. One of the problems with

that overtaking opportunity as a potential place is that the very fast

bridge corner is one in which it's very hard, in fact impossible, to get right

up behind another car because you lose your downforce because of the air coming

off the car ahead.

And interesting to compare the two...

The two characters of these two drivers, Blundell's been around for a long time.

He's a tough, gritty driver.

And Barrichello, I don't think, has got the level of aggression in him that

actually Blundell will have in this kind of dueling situation.

Barrichello is supremely gifted. He's very smooth. More of a cross kind of

style. And I think Barrichello's going to be better at catching Blundell up

than actually forcing a way by. And I think we're going to see Blundell defend

his position very robustly indeed in the head.

And interestingly enough, Rubens Barrichello that we're riding with and

Johnny Herbert who is leading this race with Mark Blundell. Mark

Blundell and Herbert have both won the Le Mans 24-hour race.

But if you didn't see it earlier on, this is how the battle for leadership

was resolved between Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill. When Damon Hill, in the

opinion of a lot of people, tried something that was not possible. I'm

sure Michael Schumacher is going to say that. Got inside the Benetton, made

contact, put them both out of the race.

So Schumacher who was leading, Damon Hill who was second in what was going to

be a tremendous climax were both out and the race leader then became Johnny

Herbert that we're looking at now. He's on his 58th lap out of 61.

He's increasing his lead over the Ferrari of Giorno Laci because it's up

to 6.8 seconds.

But when Hill and Schumacher went out and Herbert became third, it wasn't for

very long because David Coulthard fought his way superbly in the Williams-Renault

past the Benetton-Renault that you are looking at now, only to get a 10-second

penalty for speeding into pit lane. In he went. Back into first place went

Johnny Herbert. Up into second place went Shauna Lacey. Down to third place

where he is now went David Coulthard.

And the order on lap 58 out of 61 with Johnny Herbert coming through shortly

to complete his 58th lap and enter his 59th. Just three laps to go now for

Johnny Herbert with Alessi nearly seven seconds behind him. Johnny looks as

though he's going to get the job done for the first time in 71 Grand Prix.

It hasn't taken him as long as it took Jean Alessi.

But it was looking as though it was never going to happen with the dominance

of Michael Schumacher in the Benetton team. That's Alisi in the background.

You can see the track gap between the two of them. That's the time gap.

8.7 seconds.

So...

Johnny has increased his lead by two seconds in one lap as down the hangar

straight comes a Lacey. Herbert is on his way out of Stoke Corner into club.

Coulthard is third. Blundell is still fourth. A whisker ahead of less than a

car's length ahead of Barrichello fifth. And up to sixth place in the points

again comes Frenchman Olivier Parnis in the Ligier. Some recompense for Martin

Brundle having gone off much earlier in the race.

Well, what a magnificent British Grand Prix this has been.

We saw Damon Hill have the perfect start. Pole position, and then he made

the perfect start away from the grid to lead, held up by this man, John Alessi,

who held up the pursuing Michael Schumacher.

And it was really very, very even indeed in terms of pace behind between

Schumacher and Hill. But, of course, it all went wrong after that second pit

stop for Damon Hill. He was out there within a second chasing Michael

Schumacher. until he made that apparently curious judgment to try and

come up the inside into Priory. It just seemed to me like an apparent lapse of

judgment, and I don't see any way that that maneuver really could have been on.

Certainly one would not have expected in any way Schumacher to have left the door

open. So what a great shame there for Damon Hill, but a greater shame, I

really think, for Michael Schumacher, because he'd really done everything

right. He'd been held up.

He'd been compromised to the extent of some 12 seconds in the early stages by

being held up behind a lacy.

Benetton had gone creatively once again for a different fuel stop regime, to go

to stop just once.

And that probably helped them in the early stages, in fact. And then

Schumacher was about to defend Damon Hill in what would have been the best

battle of 1995.

Until, of course...

He'll hit him up the back and spinning them both off into the gravel trap.

Whilst then, Johnny Herbert then.

Johnny Herbert, I really think, is going to get the just reward for a very, very

loyal year's work with the Benetton team. He's just got on quietly with the

job of making the very best of his number two position at Benetton. And

it's going to be tremendous to see Johnny Herbert win the British Grand

Prix. And a great surprise to a lot of people.

But a frustrated man is going to be David Coulthard.

He was frustrated in the start by being held up by John Olesi.

Eventually, after the second pit stop, he got ahead of John Olesi and was then

fighting with Johnny Herbert.

But then, just as it was looking as if Coulthard could win his first British

Grand Prix, he got penalised and had to come in for exceeding the speed limit,

putting him out of contention and down to third place. Good on any other day,

but not today.

So, frustrated Coulthard, Olesi fighting as ever, second place for the second

time this year.

as he was at Argentina. And a good mention, too, for Mark Blundell, who's

driven a great race to finish fourth.

And Johnny Herbert is on his last lap. He's been the British kart champion.

He's won the Formula Ford Festival in that category.

He was the British Formula 3 champion in Eddie Jordan's team. He suffered all

sorts of adversities, including those two dreadfully shattered legs in the

Formula 3000 race at Branson. And Barry Keller has overdone it. challenging and

has gone out of the race what happened with Mark Blundell I don't know but with

Mark Blundell presumably Barry Keller was trying a last gasp effort like Damon

Hill did but here is Johnny Herbert who in his 71st Grand Prix is virtually

certain he's only got a few yards now between himself and the chequered flag

his first victory in the British Grand Prix he's behind Olivier Parnis in the

Ligier Mougon who is 6th He's lapped everybody else. That means to say that

Parnis will move up into fifth place.

Heinz-Harold Frensen will move up into sixth place.

But the glorious winner of the British Grand Prix, into the left-hander at

Priory, into the left-hander at Brooklands. He now only has Luffy at

one, Luffy at two, and Woodcoat is going to be Johnny Herbert.

And he knows it. He waves his hand. Well done, Johnny.

Thousands of people here are saying that. And for Benetton, Johnny Herbert

wins the British Grand Prix. And you can see how popular his victory is. He's a

lovely chap. And he richly, richly deserves it.

Jean Alassie is now over 12 seconds behind. But again, he finishes in

second place.

And that is the third time that Alassie's been second in. And Coulthard

finishes in third position.

So... Benetton win Ferrari second Williams third McLaren is going to be

fourth when Mark Lundell comes home Ligier is going to be fifth when Parnis

comes home Rubens Barrichello is out of the race Henson will come home in sixth

position but he has been lapped And Johnny is a pretty phlegmatic chap. When

Johnny Herbert finished second in the Spanish Grand Prix, he didn't look all

that overwhelmed about it. I would expect him to be ecstatic when he is in

the interview room to tell us how he won for the first time in a Formula One

Grand Prix. And my goodness, what a place to win at.

Silverstone, his home Grand Prix in Britain.

Here is the man from South London. He doesn't live there anymore.

He lives in the Midlands near Stafford-on-Avon with Becky, his wife

and his children.

And Johnny Herbert is an absolutely and understandably and totally justified

elated. And that is Mark Blundell. My goodness, the sensation goes on right to

the end.

Mark Blundell, I'm guessing that he was hit by Barrichello and somehow punctured

that left rear tyre.

But Blundell crosses the line to finish not fourth, but to finish behind Olivier

Parnis, who has come home in the Ligier, having gained a place as Mark Blundell

stops with his front wheels stationary, and a bitter pill for him to swallow.

Now, here's a re... This is what happened, and sure enough...

That was it.

Barrichello hits him and that's what punctured Mark Blundell's tyre and

forced Barrichello off. Now that's the second British Grand Prix incident on

the last lap that Rubens Barrichello has been involved with because last year it

was Hackenden at the last corner.

Now then we're having a look at that. That was into the Abbey section there

with Barrichello coming up on the inside and whether or not...

Blundell just moved across on him or not. It was hard to say from that.

Perhaps we can have another look at an outside view. We might get a better

impression, but clearly it was always going to be a very, very hard fight

between the two. Johnny Herb. Well, there he is. There is little in physical

terms. Johnny Herb, 31 years old, lives in Wotton War now, and what

a lovely, lovely day.

for a super blow he's always got a smile on his face he's always got a witticism

and Flavio Briatore and Michael Schumacher that is a very very nice

sight Michael Schumacher has seen the next best thing to him winning as far as

he's concerned and that's his teammate Mika Hakkinen and John Alaci will be

equally pleased. There's Alaci on the left, and he congratulates Johnny

Herbert. And Alaci will know just how it feels. We've got another new Grand Prix

winner, and that's what Formula One needs.

With no disrespect to Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill, who have brilliantly

dominated Formula One for a very, very long time now, and deservedly so.

Variety is the spice of life. We've got a new winner in Canada. And now, here at

Silverstone for the British Grand Prix, we have another new winner in Formula

One. A superb achievement.

Off comes the balaclava. He's talking to Charlie Whiting, who is the FIA's

technical delegate, who has to make sure that everything is right. And up to the

interview room goes Johnny Herbert with team boss Flavio Briatore. Another

victory for Benetton. Another victory for Renault. And that is the difference

between winning and losing for a driver. Look at that dejected face there of

David Coulthard.

He really is full of dismay as to what's happened. Third place on any other day

wouldn't have been a bad result, but not today. Today was his opportunity to win

a Grand Prix.

But still managing a bit of a smile there, but it's a forced one, I'm

afraid. And when we look at that rostrum, we're going to see even more

forced smiles, but not from Johnny Herbert there, coming up there finally.

And it's just so wonderful to see Johnny, a driver who started in Formula

One back in 1989 with...

the Bennington team, in fact, and then left the team, came back, and very

lovely to see David Coulthard being so generous in his praise for Johnny

Herbert there. Sean O'Lacey again, just showing what a good, hard-charging

driver he is. Look at this. He is absolutely ufotic, and he can drive.

Did you hear the crowd?

Oh, don't tell me.

You really, really deserve it. O'Lacey.

I congratulate him.

David Coulthard congratulates him.

Camaraderie. And I slam.

A gigantic exhalation of relief.

His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Tent, as President of the Royal

Automobile Club, presents the magnificent gold trophy.

What a trophy. What a trophy to win for your first World Prix victory.

Kenneth Clarke, Chancellor of the Exchequer, motor racing fan, here at

Silverstone to see a British victory.

that's 10 points for Johnny Herbert that's 10 points for Benetton that will

increase Benetton's lead in the Constructors World Championship over

Ferrari with Jean Alessi second on the left yet again Alessi's and look at that

in the background as Greg Field of Benetton and Tim Wright who is Johnny

Herbert's race engineer applaud their driver for a superb performance

Geoffrey Rose of the RAC congratulates both of them and Flavio Briatore.

So Benetton are further ahead in the Constructors' Championship.

Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill, as a result of that dramatic coming together,

are still separated by 11 points in the Drivers' Championship.

Sean Alessi gets a bit closer to Damon Hill because Alessi now has 32 points.

and is only three points behind the Englishman. In fact, the new World

Championship order is Michael Schumacher, 11 points of Damon Hill,

Jonah Lacey in third place, only three points behind Damon Hill. Up to fourth

position goes the British Grand Prix winner, Johnny Herbert, with 22 points,

and I've never, never, never seen that before.

The second and third men lifting in honour the winner.

That has to be the most popular Grand Prix winner for a very long time.

To the victor, the spoils. A gigantic gold cup and a gigantic bottle of

champagne. Johnny Herbert wins the British Grand Prix.

John Alessi, second for Ferrari.

A bitterly disappointed David Coulthard, who led, finishes third.

In fourth position, Olivier Parnis.

in the Liget. Fifth, Mark Lundell, who dramatically lost fourth place on that

last lap as a result of the coming together with Rubens Barrichello. Up to

sixth goes Heights Harold Frenson, just out of the points. Yet again, it's

happened to him many times. Pierluigi Martini, some recompense for the Minardi

team after all the problems they've had in the last two races.

Mikasalo, a brilliant eighth place in the Tyrrell, despite having all his

Friday qualifying times.

due to a red light infringement. Jean-Christophe Bouillon is in ninth

position and in tenth place, Luca Badoa in the second Minardi.

The rain has held off for most of the race. Thank heavens it did not

significantly affect anything that did happen.

But Silverstone, the British Grand Prix of 1995, is going to be a race to

remember for a lot of reasons.

And it's going to be a race that's going to engender an enormous argument about

what happened between Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill. As you can see, Benetton

are now nine points ahead of Ferrari, with Williams three points behind the

Italian team.

Ferrari have pulled away a bit in the championship.

And that fifth place for Mark

Blundell. has enabled the McLaren team to get a bit closer to Jordan, who are

still in fourth position in the Constructors' World Championship and

staying ahead of the mighty McLaren team, which has had some very hard times

in 1995.

All sorts of personalities to talk about.

Damon Hill, of course. Michael Schumacher, of course. You would expect

them. to be dominating the race, and that's precisely what they did. It's the

first time they've taken each other out of contention in quite that way. But

remember what happened in Australia, and now they're waiting to tell us what

happened.

Herbert, Alessi and Coulthard with Steve Ryder.

An extraordinary race, and from the point of view of British Motorsport, a

quite amazing winner.

Johnny Herbert, in all honesty, did you ever think you'd see this day?

Probably a year ago, no.

Definitely not. It's a fantastic feeling. I couldn't believe it when

really they came over the radio and said Damon and Michael had gone off.

And then obviously he sort of came up behind me and got by.

And then they warned me just as he got near me that he was on at 10 seconds. I

thought, well, I'll have a little play with him and then, you know, let him go.

And I think maybe we played a bit too close, I'm not sure.

You were battling quite hard for a couple of laps. Was that before you

heard the information?

Describe the emotions you felt up on the top step of the podium at the British

Grand Prix. Well, it's fantastic being that all the problems I've had like six

years ago with breaking the feet. I said this more or less when I finished second

in Barcelona.

But this is more special. It's more what I've always wanted to do. My wife's been

very supportive the whole way through. So it's down to her that she's helped me

through. And the closing stages of the race, so many thoughts must have been

going through your mind. Any negative thoughts looking at the sky or the car?

Well, I was looking at the sky, yeah, but I could see it coming and I thought,

don't you dare.

And luckily enough, it stayed there. But it was just really trying to just

concentrate on what was going on with John behind. You never know what can

happen anyway. So it was just concentrate and keep a nice pace.

Well done. And John Lacey in second place. In the closing stages, did you

think you had any prospect of catching Johnny?

Honestly, when I was at the beginning, second behind him, I tried and I said,

why not? But it was anyway very difficult because he was pushing hard.

And by radio, they asked me to slow down because I had not oiled enough in the

engine in the high-speed corner.

I had some peak of oil pressure, so I tried to slow down,

but anyway.

I'm very pleased to be second here in the British Grand Prix.

It's for Ferrari a very difficult race, so he's not about to have six points

now. Amazing feature of your race was the start, blasting up from sixth to

second off the start. Tell us about that. Yeah, I was so surprised because

I'm complaining of my system in Ferrari. I never start very

well this season, and I was so surprised because I complained.

Every day, please do something for the clutch because I cannot start like that.

And now I don't know what I will be able to say.

But David, in third, bad luck. And do you have any arguments at all about the

pit lane speeding penalty?

Well, no, not at all. Because after my crash pit stop, I lost some of the

electrics in the car.

And I thought...

Immediately, I don't know what lap I stopped because I stopped early because

I was stuck behind Michael and I thought it was Gerhard but was it Jean that was

second, did you say?

Indeed. Well, that's an amazing start.

Unbelievable.

Well, anyway, so I stopped early and then immediately as I left the pit, then

the electricity failed in the car and I thought, well, okay, five more laps and

the gearbox would explode. But it just kept going and going and then, of

course, when I saw that Damon and Michael went off and I could challenge

for Johnny, I thought, well, this is great.

But I knew, because my electorate had failed, that I had no way of knowing

what speed I was doing in the pit lane.

I was speeding.

Rules are rules.

You pay the price.

You presumably didn't see anything of the going of Damon and Michael, but have

you heard any reaction to it as yet? No, I just saw on the big screen during the

race, I saw them touch and go into the gravel. So I have to say that whoever

supplies the big screen is fantastic for watching the race.

So I saw them go off and I thought, hmm, there's going to be something

interesting to discuss afterwards.

it kind of makes the whole battle between those two more interesting.

But for me, the main thing was obviously just trying to make the car get to the

finish, because I thought after my pit stop it was impossible.

And then when I was leading, I thought, well, this is fantastic.

And then I have to say that if I was going to finish, if I wasn't going to

win and then was going to win, I couldn't be happier than for Johnny to

win. I think it's fantastic for him, everything he's been through.

And I'm very happy for him.

Congratulations again.

Johnny, that's very generous from David. Was it the 71st Grand Prix?

Give us an idea of the sort of hard work and the sacrifice that has gone behind

today. Well, it's just really when I had the accident, it was just really getting

everything so it worked good enough to actually drive again. And it would sort

of touch and go right at the beginning if I would sort of keep the left one,

but luckily I've kept that one. But if it was the other way around, I've got

enough movement on the throttle, but I wouldn't have it if it was on the other

foot because it hasn't got enough movement. I've got enough just to do the

clutch, which is fine.

And so when I got over that, got in the Benetton obviously in 89, did that one

race in Brazil and I thought, cool, this is easy.

And then it hit me quite hard in Monaco the following races.

And obviously it just wasn't really, my foot wasn't up to the job. I couldn't

brake or anything.

And at the time, when I got stopped, it was the best thing I think that

happened. Going to Japan was a very good move. It got me away from the limelight.

It got me lots of testing, lots of mileage.

And it just, I was able to actually then make, feet strong enough again to

actually drive properly.

And when I came back with Lotus in 91, thankfully for Peter Connors once again,

who really got me here, I was able to drive again and get against Mika for two

years. It was really, you know, a good challenge. So it's been very, very hard.

And as I say, my wife has been supportive the whole way through, way

back since the accident. So it's a fantastic day, especially at

Silverstone. We're all delighted for you. Johnny Herbert, winner of the

British Grand Prix. Well done.

Johnny Herbert's wife is Becky and she will be as delighted as the rest of us

are. But three incredibly memorable quotes.

I thought I'd have a little play with him says Johnny Herbert apropos of David

Coulthard who's fighting his way past.

And Jean Lacey has been moaning. We all know how much he'd been moaning about

his clutch in the Ferrari.

And he goes from sixth to second by the first corner. And now he's embarrassed

because he doesn't know what he's going to say about it. And what a cheerful,

professional, likeable chap David Coulthard is, having bitterly

lost. a potential victory in his 16th Grand Prix and his home Grand Prix too,

to be able to congratulate Johnny Herbert as openly and as happily as he

did. Jonathan.

And in case you wondered what exactly Johnny Herbert was talking about in

terms of his accident, he actually had a huge accident in Formula 3000 back in

1988. That's the category that's just one down from Formula 1. He was very

much on the ascent then.

And that was at Brands Hatch, and he had a coming together with another car when

his car then turned right and hit the barriers head-on at about 140 miles an

hour. And as a result of doing that, Johnny's feet were both badly broken.

His feet were sticking indeed out of the front of the car.

he was likely to even lose a leg it really was quite a quite a dramatic

accident he made a great recovery he could have even have lost his left leg

as he said

Well, as you can see, the rain is now really coming down. Thank heavens it

didn't affect the British Grand Prix, although it's certainly going to affect

the Silverstone round of the British Touring Car Championship.

But what about that manoeuvre that's going to be talked about for a very,

very long time?

Damon Hill challenging Michael Schumacher to regain the lead of the

British Grand Prix with both of them having made their last pit stop. They

turn into bridge corner.

Schumacher on the left, Damon Hill on the right. You can see how... Damon is

getting closer and closer, sees what he thinks is his opportunity, dives inside

Schumacher, who turns in, they collide inevitably, across the grass, off the

tarmac, into the gravel, first the Benetton, and then the Williams to

destroy the hopes of both of them of winning the British Grand Prix.

Damon for the second time in succession, Schumacher for the first time in

succession. Well, let's look at it again.

So again, Hill comes up, and he's really going a lot, lot quicker than Schumacher

at this stage. Schumacher, I think, had no idea that Hill was going to try and

have a go there. That place is not really an overtaking spot here at

Silverstone, so I think Schumacher would have been concentrating on slowing his

car down from 155, down through the gears, fifth, fourth, third, second,

turning left into Brooklands and into Priory, and as he turned left into

that... Hill was committed. He was coming up the inside. Here's another

look. He's a long way back, you see. And some flashes from the back of the

Bennington. That's normal from the gear changing with the engine revving going

down. It just seemed to me like a bit of a rush of blood to the head for Damon

there. The only possible excuse, shall we say, for Damon, quite frankly, is

here's an on-board one. Again, looking up, going in the inside, but Schumacher

is taking his line, frankly. Hill was going really very quickly indeed.

The only possible explanation from... damon's point of view is whether or not

schumacher had some problem with his car and actually braked a lot earlier now

here's from schumacher on board this is what it was like for schumacher and that

was after he'd been hit the car spinning around they probably hit at about 70 or

80 miles an hour so you can again you can see how strong these cars are so uh

in summary really i think unless you had a problem with his car then it was him

being just over ambitious look at that steering wheel damon had the presence of

mind to let go of it because drivers have broken their thumbs in the past

hanging on to a steering wheel that's wildly flailing about in front of them

well I suppose one has to say and this is in no way a plea of mitigation that

it's on as even because Schumacher took Damon Hill out of the Australian Grand

Prix and thereby won the world championship last year and now the

reverse has happened and now here is Damon himself talking to Tony Jardine

I've had time to calm down of course so I would like this

to be my official considered reaction to what

happened and that is that we're having a great race it's going to be an exciting

race I thought I saw an opportunity that I could take advantage of and

I'm afraid that

Michael is a harder man to pass than that.

And we had an accident, and I would describe it as a racing accident.

And I'm very disappointed for all the fans, everyone here who came along and

was cheering for those few laps when I was catching Michael. I'm also very,

very disappointed for the Williams team who did a superb effort all weekend.

And I'd just like to say that that's really all I'd like to say.

The only thing that I've got on my mind is my wife Georgie, who as you know is

due to have a baby and in the coming week I expect that's what

will be happening and will be more on my mind than anything else.

The championship is still wide open and I think we've shown

that we can compete against Michael Schumacher and we can beat him.

And the championship is still very much a possibility.

Damon, that's all I want to say. Thank you.

Well, don't leap to judgments.

You weren't sitting in the car trying to pass the world champion, nor was I. But

you've heard what Damon Hill had to say. What did Michael Schumacher think about

it?

Michael Schumacher, it looks like you had it in the bag. One-stop strategy.

Then what were your views on the incident?

It was completely unnecessary in my view what Damon has done there. There was no

room for him to go there.

He came from nowhere, as I got told from my engineers.

And I don't see the sense of doing things like this. Even in front of your

home crowd, you have to keep your nerves and your temperament.

In a normal way, not to make it dangerous to anyone.

I mean, it's more or less a situation like in Adelaide where he tried to dive

inside where there was no room also. So twice an incident like this where it was

absolutely unnecessary.

I can't understand this, to be honest.

Do you feel he was a bit hot-headed, got carried away?

Yes, certainly. I mean, he was...

probably too much under pressure and tried to make something which wouldn't

work. What about that dive between the two of you in the closing lap? Do you

think you could have stayed ahead?

Yes, I'm quite sure. At this point, he was certainly a new, fresher tyre with

the same fuel level, but towards the end, the tyres would have levelled off

from him and then I should have pulled off a gap.

I knew that overtaking is very difficult, so I just wasn't...

worried at all, to be honest.

I knew where I had to be quick, in the fast complex on Beckett, and always

before the long straight, and I was quick there.

In the slow corners, there was no reason to push too hard for me, because there

was no way for me to overtake, because I had the same situation with Jean Lazy

before, where I couldn't overtake him, and I never tried a situation like this.

The Benetton strategy looked like it was going to pay off yet again.

Yeah, I think the strategy...

Under normal circumstances, it would have been slower, but it paid off to

come out in front of them after their last stop, and that was our target. We

managed, even after a bit of a disaster at the beginning of the race, after

being held up by Jean Lazy.

I still managed to pull a gap then after I was free,

which was enough to just coming out in front of Damon.

11 points clear still. Germany coming up. Confident for that one?

Yeah, as confident as I can be in the moment.

Thank you, Michael.

Well,

a very guarded Damon Hill, that's all I have to say, but a very positive,

forceful and clear speaking Michael Schumacher making his views known.

But whilst it's a great pity that happened, it's a joyful ending to the

British Grand Prix with a British winner at his own home event, a great first

victory for Johnny Herbert in the Benetton ahead of a Lacey's Ferrari and

David Coulthard's Williams, a truly memorable British Grand Prix.

Yes, emotions running high here at Silverstone in every sense of the word.

And just to add to the drama, the rain really has arrived in earnest outside.

And if that had happened half an hour ago, that would have been another twist

to a quite amazing story. But all is well, and Johnny Herbert's British Grand

Prix victory celebrations have begun in earnest.

Let's turn to another big race now. The big horse race in Ireland this afternoon

was the Irish Oaks at the Curragh. Before showing you what happened, let's

give you a full check on the betting.

Yes, just before the off, Steve, the going change from good to firm to

yielding. The betting is as follows.

La Rocha, 9-4.

Valley of Gold, 4-1.

Pure Grain, 9-2.

Russian Snows, 13-2.

Alicidora, 10s. Musetta, 14, with Ryama.

Asterita, 16-1. Bluffing, 50-1. And the Outsider, Crystal Bird, at 200-1.

A real quality field at the Curragh for the Kildangan stud, Irish Oaks. This was

the coverage of our colleagues at RTE Television.

She's a bit unlucky not to have finished closer at Epsom, got into a bit of

trouble coming down the hill.

Part of course suspended and Jason Weaver aboard today is bluffing the last

to be loaded is brought forward.

In she goes for Kevin Manning.

Asterita nearest to us. Then Pure Grain, John Reid.

The Black Calf become a man on Russian Snow. So they're off and running in the

Kildangan Stud, Irish Oaks. And Musetta broke well on the outside with Pure

Grain on the inner.

Alessadora is just in behind these in third. And then comes La Rocha moving up

on the outside.

Just behind them, Valley of Gold.

Asterita on the rails. Then comes Bluffing. And behind Bluffing is Riyama.

Russian Snow's last but one.

And the maiden, Crystal Bird, brings up the rear.

Heading to the end of the first quarter mile, Musetta.

Then third, Pure Grain ahead of Valley of Gold, the Italian Oaks winner. Then

Astarita next on the inside.

And just behind these is Alessandora.

Riyama is three from the back ahead of Russian Snows. And finally Crystal Bird

as they come towards the Seven Furlong Pole.

And it's Musetta in the lead by just over a length. La Rocha second, then

Pure Grain, half a length away on the inside.

A length further back we find Valley of Gold. Behind Valley of Gold is Asterita

on the inside.

And then comes Bluffing as they run up now towards the halfway stage.

And it's Musetta who's in the lead. Musetta from La Rocha second, a two

-length break then to Pure Grain, then Valley of Gold is next in fourth as they

begin the descent towards the five furlough marker. Musetta the leader, La

Rocha second, Pure Grain three, four, Niggle de Long, Valley of Gold, five on

the outside bluffing, six after Rita, seven is Russian Snows making a bit of

ground, Alessadora next on the outside, Riyama last but one, and finally Crystal

Bird as they run down towards the home turn. Musetta leads in the Irish Oaks

from La Rocha, poised in second, Valley of Gold getting... closer pure grain

john reed on the inside as they run now into the home turn and swing in with

just under three furlongs to race it's musetta the leader la russia in second

then valley of gold pure grain gets a wide split between horses then russian

snows putting in a run asterita is next but it's musetta tackled by pure grain

la russia can't quicken valley of gold here comes russian snows on the outside

but it's pure grain and john reed out in front being chased by russian snows

set over in third. La Rocha, one pace, then Valley of Gold, but Pure Grain is

drawing away as they race up towards the line. John Reid's going to win the

Kaldang and Stud Irish Oaks. Pure Grain, the Epsom Oaks third, running on

strongly and putting up a good performance.