At the start of the race Michael Schumacher makes a slow start and is passed by both McLarens, Jacques Villeneuve and Eddie Irvine. It is Mika Hakkinen who gets to the first corner ahead having barged Villeneuve out of his way. This delays Jacques and enables David Coulthard to take second place with Irvine third and Villeneuve fourth. Later on the first lap Schumacher is able to pass Jacques to take fourth. Further back Jean Alesi makes a good start to run sixth ahead of Ralf Schumacher, the two Benettons and Jarno Trulli. Olivier Panis has a disastrous first lap and drops from ninth to 15th while Damon Hill goes from 14th on the grid to 11th at the end of the lap.

In the course of the second lap Irvine allows Schumacher to pass him and Michael then sets off after the two McLarens, leaving Eddie to fight off Villeneuve. Ralf Schumacher passes Alesi and takes sixth while Hill puts on a great charge and passes Giancarlo Fisichella, Trulli, Wurz and then Alesi.

At the front the McLarens are able to build a lead of four seconds and on lap eight Coulthard goes ahead of Hakkinen in what appears to be a planned strategy. David then pulls quickly away while Hakkinen drops back towards Schumacher's Ferrari. Further back Hill passes Ralf Schumacher to run sixth. He takes Villeneuve for fifth on lap 14 but then pits at the end of the lap. He drops to 12th.

While Coulthard builds up a lead of nearly 10 seconds Hakkinen is able to keep ahead of Schumacher but McLaren's strategy goes wrong on lap 17 when Coulthard's engine blows up. Hakkinen and Schumacher arrive at the second chicane in a cloud of oil smoke and both have to lift off. In the scramble to get back on the power Hakkinen slides out wide at the exit of the chicane and Schumacher is able to get alongside and take the lead going into the first Lesmo corner.

Once in the lead Schumacher builds a small lead over Hakkinen but then Mikafights back and the gap fluctuates until just before the pit stops when the McLaren driver begins to fade badly. Further back Irvine loses a lot of time when he goes wide at the Lesmo and Villeneuve closes in on him.

Schumacher is able to get a lead of around seven seconds before he pits on lap 31 but Hakkinen stays out in the lead until lap 34 and then pits. He rejoins behind Michael. All the major players are on one-stop strategies and when the pit stops are over the order is unchanged at the front, although Damon Hill is able to make up two places when Fisichella and Frentzen both have bad pits stops. Heinz-Harald loses slightly less time and moves up to seventh place.

Fourth-placed Villeneuve is chasing after Irvine but on lap 38 he makes a mistake and goes off in the first Lesmo corner. Jacques's retirement puts Ralf Schumacher into fourth with Alesi fifth and Hill sixth.

Hakkinen now begins to chase Schumacher and closes the gap by around three-tenths each lap, setting two fastest laps as he does so. On lap 47 Mika makes a mistake at the second chicane and spins. He is able to keep the car away from the walls and rejoins but he then begins to suffer serious brake problems and his lap times drop dramatically. This enables Irvine to close up and take second place on lap 49. Ralf Schumacher also passes Hakkinen on lap 51. Hakkinen finishes fourth and is now equal with Schumacher in the World Championship with two races to go.

Ferrari scores its first 1-2 at Monza since 1988.