Hakkinen rocketed away at the start, as Schumacher suffered huge wheelspin and veered across the nose of David Coulthard’s McLaren, which allowed Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello up to third at the expense of Coulthard, with Jacques Villeneuve’s BAR at the head of the chasing pack.
The race developed into two distinct McLaren v Ferrari duels. Hakkinen and Schumacher pitted together at the first round of stops, with Schumacher taking on more fuel. Hakkinen pitted earlier for his second pit visit, and Schumacher’s rapid pace in the intervening laps meant he rejoined well ahead of Hakkinen – who complained of his engine cutting out – when Michael stopped again. “These four laps were crucial,” Schumacher said later.
Hakkinen had previously run over some debris in his first stint – “a metal piece of something” – which damaged the front of the floor of his McLaren and slowed his pace. However, he rallied in the closing stages and closed the gap down on Schumacher. Michael’s own scare came with a misunderstanding when he came up to lap Pedro Diniz’s Sauber, and the two almost collided.
Meantime, Barrichello and Coulthard pitted on the same lap in the second round of stops – and the shorter-fuelled Coulthard beat Barrichello out by a matter of inches. He pulled away with ease thereafter, and said: “I knew I was quicker than him, thankfully my guys did a good job in the pitstop.”
After an absorbing high-paced duel at the front, Schumacher won by just 1.168s – which was less than Hakkinen’s advantage over him had been at the end of lap one! Coulthard was over 50s in arrears, having got the better of Barrichello for third. Barrichello was the only other unlapped runner, with Villeneuve and Mika Salo’s Sauber rounding out the point scorers.
It was Schumacher’s third victory in a row, capping off a perfect start to his campaign to wrest the title away from reigning champion Hakkinen – who scored his first points of the year after a poor start to his season.
After the race, Schumacher said: “That was an exciting race and I hope the tifosi are happy with the result! I made a very bad start with massive wheelspin. But I managed to keep my second position.
“Our strategy remained as planned. We did not know what Mika would do and we had to guess. The four laps before the second pit stop was the decisive moment when I pushed very hard. Maybe we did not have the best tyre choice for today’s conditions.
“I had a worrying moment when I tried to lap Diniz. He tried to be nice and let me pass, but it was the wrong place and I very nearly hit him. Apart from that, the race was good fun. It was like qualifying from start to finish.”
Hakkinen explained of his race: “I'm happy to score points, but I should have won the race. Just before my first pitstop I hit a piece of debris on the circuit which damaged the front floor of my car and made it hard to drive for the rest of the race.
“Also, just before my second pitstop, my engine cut out on the main straight and I lost time to Schumacher which meant he was able to take the lead following his second pitstop.”
