France was the venue for the next Grand Prix and Mansell was going to race for Williams as it would not interfere with his CART racing. Benetton had relegated Lehto to the third driver and given the second seat behind Schumacher to Verstappen. Frenchman Jean-Marc Gounon took the second Simtek seat alongside David Brabham. The Williams team took a 1–2 in qualifying with Hill on pole ahead of Mansell, Schumacher, Alesi, Berger and Irvine. At the start, Schumacher showed class to slice between both Williams to take the lead while Barrichello got ahead of Irvine. Schumacher led ahead of Hill, Mansell, Alesi, Berger and Barrichello.