Former world champion Damon Hill is to return to the cockpit of a Formula One car for the first time since he quit the sport at the end of 1999.

The 41-year-old Englishman is to drive a Minardi two-seater car in a demonstration race at Donington Park in Leicestershire next month.

Hill, world champion in 1996, would join other past and present Formula One drivers at the team's "Thunder in the Park" event on 10-11 August, a Minardi spokesman said.

Hill last raced an F1 car at the 1999 Japanese Grand Prix.

That race brought down the curtain on a disappointing final Grand Prix season for Jordan in which he was outpaced by team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

Hill's last season was given added piquancy as it was Frentzen to whom Hill lost his drive at the dominant Williams team at the end of his championship-winning season, 1996.

After leaving Williams, Hill joined Arrows for 1997 before moving to Jordan in 1998, when he gave the team their first F1 victory, at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Eight of the Minardi two-seater cars will stage a 12-lap "race" and passenger rides will be auctioned off for charity.

Nigel Mansell, the 1992 world champion, drove in the event last year in typically dramatic style.

He crashed into the car driven by Spain's Fernando Alonso on the last lap of the race.

Other drivers likely to take part in the event include Alonso, Minardi's Australian driver Mark Webber, Britons Mark Blundell and Martin Brundle and Dutchman Jos Verstappen according to the Reuters news agency.