 The conditions for the race were dry, with a capacity crowd of some 40,000 fans turning out to watch the race. The drivers took to the track on Sunday morning for a 30-minute warm-up session. Both Williams cars maintained their good performance from qualifying; Coulthard was fastest with teammate Hill in second. Schumacher completed the top three positions. Herbert and Katayama both suffered from gearbox problems with their race cars, and elected to start the race with their teams'spare cars. The Simtek team did not take part in the session, as both drivers waited for stronger suspension components flown out from the United Kingdom to be fitted to the cars for the race. Minutes before the race started, a press release from the FIA was given to all media and team personnel, notifying them that the chromatographic analysis of the Elf fuel samples taken from Schumacher's Benetton and the Coulthard's Williams during qualifying did not match the sample provided by the fuel company before the start of the season for reference purposes, thus rendering both cars illegal. Both teams were fined $ 30,000 and raced under appeal, as the standard penalty for the offence was disqualification from the event. Neither Schumacher nor Coulthard were informed of the situation, as the teams did not want to unsettle their drivers before the race start. Hill and Herbert's races were not affected by the judgement, despite using the same type of fuel. Samples from Ferrari's Agip and McLaren's Mobil fuel were also tested; both were in accordance with the regulations. Though 26 cars qualified for the race, only 25 took the start: Martini retired on the parade lap, his Minardi car suffering a gearbox problem.
