Sunday 6th November 1994

Damon Hill’s victory in the rain-soaked Japanese Grand Prix kick-started his faltering, and ultimately futile, championship bid. In a two-part race, interrupted because of rain, Hill beat Michael Schumacher by three seconds leaving him needing just to finish ahead of him in the season finale in Adelaide to take the title. “I was on the radio on every lap,” Hill said, “being informed of Michael’s progress and it just served to spur me on. I told them there was no point telling me to go faster, because I was already on the limit.” In dreadful conditions, Martin Brundle admitted he had a lucky escape when he came within an inch of hitting a caterpillar tractor removing Gianni Morbidelli’s Footwork. “I really thought that was it,” he said. “I hit a patch of standing water and closed by eyes … I really thought this is the end.”