At the start of the race, Lehto's Benetton B194 stalled and was hit by Pedro Lamy's Lotus. Debris from the crash, including Lamy's right front tyre, flew into the grandstand and injured four spectators and a policeman. Lamy was unhurt but Lehto received a light arm injury. The safety car—a sports variant of an Opel Vectra whose pace would later be criticized as being inadequate to help maintain the competitors' tyres up to temperature—was called out with Senna leading Schumacher, Berger, Hill, Frentzen and Häkkinen.