Damon Hill left in hysterics as he recalls one bizarre near-miss at the 1994 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Damon Hill emerged as a title contender in Formula 1 during the 1994 season, but he would miss out controversially to Michael Schumacher.

Making his first appearances in F1 with Brabham in 1992, Hill landed a full-time seat with Williams the following year. Nigel Mansell’s falling out with Williams opened the door for the fellow Brit, as he was angered by the signing of Alain Prost.

The Frenchman won the title in 1993 while Hill finished in P3. After Prost’s retirement, Hill would be partnered with another multiple world champion in Ayrton Senna in 1994, but the Brazilian would tragically lose his life along with Roland Ratzenberger at the San Marino GP.

Hill battled Schumacher for the title that season, taking it to the final race in Adelaide. During the Grand Prix, the latter deliberately drove into the former, taking both drivers out of the race and ensuring that Schumacher would be crowned champion.

Williams did not protest the result, leaving Hill to controversially settle for second. The Brit won six races and claimed 11 podiums in 1994. Six of those came in the final seven races of the season, with the streak starting at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Damon Hill left in hysterics as he remembers how he almost hit a dog at the 1994 Hungarian Grand Prix

Schumacher and Hill were the class of the field in Budapest, with the former taking pole position ahead of his title rival. The Benetton driver was half a second clear of the Williams and almost two seconds faster than David Coulthard in third.

Schumacher won the race by over 20 seconds with Hill finishing P2. But the Brit’s race weekend was perhaps more memorable for one bizarre incident during Friday practice.

In the rain-soaked session, cameras captured a stray dog venturing onto the main straight. It was seen running back onto the grass as Hill came speeding down the track in his Williams.

Thankfully, the dog climbed back over the safety barriers and avoided getting hit by the Brit. But it was a close encounter, as Hill’s former teammate Heinz Harald Frentzen recalled.

Writing on X (formerly Twitter), the German shared the footage of the near-miss as he wrote: “Damon Hill nearly hit a dog at the Hungarian GP 1994. Do you remember @HillF1?” Hilariously, Hill could not remember the ordeal as he replied: “Blow me down with a feather! I have no recollection of that!”

Damon Hill won the 1996 F1 championship before controversially leaving Williams for Arrows

Hill finished runner-up again to Schumacher in 1995, before he eventually got the better of his rival and claimed his only championship in 1996. His title-clinching win in Japan would be his last for Williams as he left the team at the end of the season.

Bizarrely, the Brit left the Grove outfit for backmarkers Arrows in 1997, despite being the defending champion. Previously known as Footwork, the team spent most of their history in F1 struggling at the back, claiming just nine podiums between 1978 and 2002.

One of those was scored by Hill, ironically, at the Hungarian GP. He was leading the race in his Arrows, but Hill was cruelly denied a historic victory as a mechanical failure in the closing stages saw Jacques Villeneuve demote him to second.

Hill left Arrows for Jordan the following year and spent two years with the team before retiring in 1999. In that time, he grabbed one more win at the chaotic 1998 Belgian GP.