'I was driving on a different level': Damon Hill’s 1994 Japanese GP win

From Hollywood scripts to boys’ own stories, there is something about the tale of doing something well beyond what anyone thought you capable. Formula 1 sometimes has a good line in it too. And you’ll struggle to find a performance that confounded expectations quite like Damon Hill’s in the 1994 Japanese Grand Prix.

He entered the year’s penultimate round in a championship fight with Benetton’s Michael Schumacher, yet Hill’s impostor status seemed irrefutable.

To cut a long story short, Schumacher looked like he’d take the championship with insulting ease. But a two-race ban and two further disqualifications later, the unlikely Hill – thrust into Williams’ lead role after Ayrton Senna’s passing – was just a point behind. He had yet to defeat Schumacher in a straight fight that season.

That Schumacher won comfortably on the return from his ban, in the European Grand Prix at Jerez, suggested his title march was but delayed, though in mitigation Hill could point at a strategy muddle that day.

Then came Japan and Suzuka. In practice and qualifying there still was nothing to suggest Hill would defy his detractors. David Tremayne in his Motor Sport report called Schumacher’s progress “insouciant” and “majestic”; the Williams by contrast looked “cumbersome and intractable”. Hill even appeared likely the second Williams, behind Nigel Mansell, but for Saturday rain.

Rain it transpired was a major player in the race too, as there were vast quantities falling when it started and even more once it got going. This necessitated first a safety car period when hailstones bounced off a flooded pitstraight, then a red flag amid chaos after 14 laps.

The race was restarted, and as was the practice then the result would be determined by ‘aggregate’ times rather than necessarily on-track. It meant Schumacher’s 6.8sec lead over Hill from ‘part one’ would carry forward, so Hill not only needed to get ahead but finish further ahead than that.

This also was a game for two players. Schumacher and Hill left the third-placed car 10sec shy after only two laps, and now after the restart were circulating 2sec or more a lap quicker than the rest.

But five laps into the restart we had the first sign of the Schumacher-Hill power balance shifting, as Schumacher dived into the pits on a two-stop strategy (refuelling during the stoppage was forbidden).

Then, for about the first time that year, Williams had one up on Benetton. Hill cut loose out front while Schumacher struggled in traffic and spray. Over five laps Hills stretched his lead from 18.7sec to a full 30.0sec.

“Schumacher felt that the Benetton was heavier than he expected,” Tremayne explained. “The officials had informed the teams of their intention to put the safety car out and run the race behind it until the 40th lap [to a conclusion], in the event of the rain returning.” The team had put enough fuel in to reach that point, but for now it was literally a burden.