At the start of the parade lap Mika Hakkinen fails to get off the line. The car is pushed into the pitlane, but it cannot be started and Hakkinen is out. At the end of the parade lap, Pedro de la Rosa’s Jaguar slows and the Spaniard drives into the pitlane.
At the start of the parade lap Mika Hakkinen fails to get off the line. The car is pushed into the pitlane, but it cannot be started and Hakkinen is out. At the end of the parade lap, Pedro de la Rosa’s Jaguar slows and the Spaniard drives into the pitlane.
Lap 1: At the start Ralf Schumacher makes the most of his pole position to take the lead from his brother Michael, who already has a clutch problem. David Coulthard stays third, but Juan Pablo Montoya makes a good start to jump from sixth to fourth. Rubens Barrichello moves up from eighth to fifth. The two Jordans run sixth and seventh, with Jarno Trulli ahead of Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Jacques Villeneuve is eighth with a fast-starting Kimi Raikkonen up from 13th to ninth. At the end of the first lap, Ralf is three-tenths ahead of Michael. At the tail of the field, De la Rosa starts a lap behind the rest of the field, his electronics having been reset by the Jaguar team.
Lap 2: Ralf increases his lead to three-tenths of a second, while Coulthard is able to stay with the two men. Further back in the field Olivier Panis overtakes Eddie Irvine to take 11th position. Jenson Button grabs 16th from his Benetton teammate Giancarlo Fisichella.
Lap 6: At the front Ralf Schumacher’s lead grows to one second. Eighth-placed Jacques Villeneuve pulls off with a technical problem.
Lap 15: The order is unchanged when Raikkonen becomes the first man to come into the pits. He drops back from eighth position to 16th.
Lap 18: Enrique Bernoldi’s Arrows stops with a mechanical problem. It had been running 14th.
Lap 19: Thirteenth-placed Button stops and loses places to Fisichella, Raikkonen and Jean Alesi.
Lap 20: Fisichella stops and falls behind Raikkonen and Alesi, but remains ahead of Button.
Lap 21: Ralf’s lead has gone out to 2.1 seconds when Barrichello becomes the first frontrunner to pit. He drops back from fifth place to seventh. Eighth-placed Nick Heidfeld also stops and rejoins in 11th, while further back Irvine overtakes Panis at the final corner to grab ninth position.
Lap 22: Alesi pits and is overtaken by the two Benettons. Fisichella is thus 14th with Button 15th and Alesi 16th.
Lap 23: Ninth-placed Panis stops and drops to 13th place.
Lap 24: Ralf Schumacher pits, allowing Michael to go into the lead. There is a problem with his right rear tyre and he loses a few vital seconds. Also stopping is sixth-placed Frentzen, who falls back to 11th place.
Lap 25: Michael pits and Coulthard takes the lead with Montoya behind him. Michael rejoins in third place, ahead of Ralf. Trulli stops and falls from fifth to seventh. Also stopping is eighth-placed Luciano Burti and 10th-placed Jos Verstappen.
Lap 26: Coulthard pits, leaving Montoya in the lead. David rejoins in fourth behind the two Schumacher brothers. David comes out of the pitlane too fast and will later be penalised. At the tail of the field Tarso Marques pits
Lap 27: Sixth-placed Irvine pits and drops back to ninth position.
