It should have been all about fanfares of farewell and triumphal marches into the middle distance but yesterday, at the British Grand Prix, Damon Hill's thunder was stolen by a driver who until now has suffered a crisis deeper and wider than any Hill could imagine.

David Coulthard, McLaren's troubled number two, inherited the lead after team-mate Mika Hakkinen suffered disastrous pit problems and Ferrari's Michael Schumacher had been airlifted to hospital after an horrific 140 m.p.h. smash at Stowe Corner. He then held on to the lead with all the canniness and parsimony with which his stereotypical countrymen are all too often endowed.

Even with Eddie Irvine breathing down his neck for 30 laps, Coulthard refused to be rattled and comfortably took the chequered flag to record only his first win in nearly 15 months. His seat with the world champions has been in some peril over the last few weeks, with Irvine first testing its security with a scathing attack several weeks ago and rumours abounding that the Scot was on his way down the paddock to fill Damon Hill's shoes at Jordan.

Yesterday though, the trials of the past year were a million miles from Coulthard's mind as he was embraced by Hakkinen and team boss Ron Dennis.

"That was fantastic," he said later.

"I feel fantastic. It was the most nerve wracking one of my career but to win the British Grand Prix is the best feeling ever. I was really nervous at the end, with all the noise I could hear and I went wide at Stowe on one of the last laps and then convinced myself I had a puncture, but I got it home in the end."

Coulthard's victory, which could see him shore up his seat at McLaren for a fifth season, was overshadowed, however, by the injury to Michael Schumacher, a broken right leg sustained when his Ferrari ploughed off at Stowe at the end of the first lap.

"Obviously, I would never want to benefit from an accident to another driver, and my best wishes go to Michael and I wish him a speedy recovery, but to come here and win my home grand prix is just fantastic," Coulthard said.

Schumacher's accident, followed four seconds after an order to red flag (abort) the start had gone out due to start-line stalls by BAR's Jaques Villeneueve and Williams's Alessandro Zanardi. After a protracted wait while the damaged tyre wall was rebuilt, the second start saw Coulthard slide to third as Irvine again made a good start, the Ulsterman setting off after leader Mika Hakkinen.

The Finn began to pull out a significant gap but following a pit stop after 26 laps, suffered sudden suspension problems and returned to the pits for repair work. The pit stop afforded Irvine the chance to take the lead and romp to his second win of the year but an ill-judged stop delayed the Ulsterman and when he rejoined the race Coulthard had snuck in front, a position he would hold until the flag.

"It was great fun but in the pit stop we threw the race away," Irvine admitted.

"The McLaren guys were out, it must have been for Mika, and the first time I saw my guys I was way too close and went a couple of feet too long. It took too long to get the fuel in and that was the race gone."

Behind the leaders, battle was raging just as hard as Ralf Schumacher, who turned in a superb drive in light of his brother's accident, fended off repeated assaults from Jordan's HeinzHarald Frentzen.

"I'm very happy with third," Schumacher said.

"It was difficult after Michael's accident, but we're professionals and the whole team relied on me and I had a job to do."

The Williams, benefiting from a new aerodynamics package, ably kept Frentzen at bay and Schumacher was quick to praise the team's engineers.

"When we came here in testing last week, we were nowhere," he said.

"We were 1.5 seconds slower and it really didn't look good. Then, suddenly, we're able to race against the Jordans and the Stewarts. I have to say thanks to the team for the impressive aerodynamic parts that were fitted this weekend and also for the brilliant pit stops that allowed me to get out in front of the Jordans."

Schumacher's boon was Jordan's dismay and while an inspired pit strategy had seen Frentzen triumph in Magny Cours two weeks ago, yesterday a slow stop allowed the Williams to steal a march and copper-fasten the four points.

"It was one of those races," said Eddie Jordan afterwards.

"Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. We've had our days of fortune in the past and this was not one of them.

"But, today we had two cars in the top five and you can't really complain about that," he added.

"Another five points further endorses our position in the championship and we sneak away a few points on Benetton and Stewart and gain a point on Williams. That's satisfactory. A good half season break. Now I can go on holidays for a couple of days and get all this out of my mind."

And what of Hill? The Briton, who finally cracked the Jordan safe last week in testing and carried that through by securing sixth place on the grid yesterday, grabbed his best finish of the season since he took fourth in Imola, by finishing behind his team-mate to score two points and bring his season total to five.

"It was good. We got some points for Eddie," he said.

"The only disappointing thing was I had a very good start the first time and I lost out at the next one.