At the start of the race the top three on the grid all get away well but Heinz-Harald Frentzen is less successful and is overtaken by Rubens Barrichello. At the Remus Corner, however, Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard manage to collide with one another and Mika is tipped into a spin. As the rest of the field tries to avoid the incident Johnny Herbert and Mika Salo hit one another, Salo damaging the front of his car against Herbert's rear. Both are forced to pit and drop to the rear of the field. Hakkinen does not pit and begins to charge up through the field.

In the early laps Coulthard sets five consecutive fastest laps as he builds a lead of 10secs by the 10th lap. Barrichello is able to keep Irvine behind him but they leave Frentzen in a lonely fourth place. There is then a big gap back to Jacques Villeneuve who has Ralf Schumacher and Pedro Diniz behind him. Making a big impression in the early laps are Alesi and Hakkinen. The Frenchman moving from 17th to 10th and the Finn going from 22nd to 12th in the course of the first 10 laps.

Ralf Schumacher makes a mistake at Remus on lap nine and spins and two laps later Diniz is able to get past Villeneuve to take fifth. Up at the front Coulthard's lead stabilises at around 12secs while Irvine begins to drop away from Barrichello, falling to nearly four seconds behind the Stewart driver. Alesi continues to make progress through the field and by lap 19 he is sixth, while Hakkinen continues his charge to seventh place.

Diniz and Alesi pit on laps 24 and 25 dropping back to 12th and 13th. This puts Hakkinen into fifth place and he begins to chase after Frentzen. He catches the German and gets ahead on lap 34 and then sets a string of fastest laps as he goes after Irvine. On the same lap Villeneuve retires from sixth place with a rear suspension failure which puts Giancarlo Fisichella into the points.

The first of the frontrunners to pit is Barrichello on lap 38, followed by Coulthard on lap 39 and Hakkinen on lap 40. Irvine stays out, charging hard until his pit stop on lap 44. He is able to get out just ahead of Coulthard who has been struggling with his car with new tyres and a heavier fuel load.

When all the stops are completed Irvine is just under two seconds ahead of Coulthard and then there is a gap of 15secs back to Barrichello who is battling with Hakkinen. Frentzen continues his lonely race in fifth while the Saubers are once again up the front thanks to their two-stop strategy. Unfortunately Alesi retires on lap 50.

On lap 50 Hakkinen passes Barrichello but all eyes are on the battle for the lead. Initially Irvine is able to get away - and build up a lead of over three seconds but then Coulthard begins to fight back as Irvine's brakes fade in the closing laps. The gap comes down to less than a second on lap 67 but Irvine is able to hold off the Scotsman all the way to the flag, the two separated by 0.3secs as they cross the line. Hakkinen is a lonely third while Frentzen's quiet afternoon ends with fourth place. Fifth goes to local hero Alexander Wurz, who takes the place when Diniz pits for a second time on lap 52 but the Sauber driver is able to finish sixth. Fisichella looks set for seventh but spins off on lap 69.