At the start Mika Hakkinen gets off the line well but Heinz-Harald Frentzen and David Coulthard are slower away, which delays Eddie Irvine. This means that Mika Salo is able to grab second at the first corner. Coulthard is third, Frentzen fourth and Irvine fifth although on the run up to the first chicane Eddie is overtaken by Rubens Barrichello.

In the midfield there is carnage as Jacques Villeneuve clips Marc Gene's Minardi and spins, hitting Pedro Diniz. As the other cars try to avoid the incident Sauber's other driver Jean Alesi damages his front wing and has to pit at the end of the first lap.

Hakkinen tries to build up a lead but Salo stays close behind him while Coulthard prepares for a challenge. Barrichello is running with a light fuel load and passes Frentzen on lap three and begins to chase after Coulthard, leaving Heinz-Harald to fight off Eddie Irvine. Further down the field Giancarlo Fisichella and Marc Gene both have off track moments. Fisichella pits for new tyres but Gene keeps going. In the midfield Johnny Herbert makes progress passing Trulli for 10th place on lap 5 although Ford's hopes take a dive on the next lap when Barrichello slows with gearbox failure. Benetton also suffers a setback when Fisichella retires with suspension damage.

At the front Hakkinen's lead is up to five seconds by lap 10, while Salo is busy holding off Coulthard. The Scotsman challenges the Finn for second in the Ostkurve but the move is not a success and David wipes off part of his front wing on the Ferrari's rear tyre. Coulthard has to pit and rejoins in 10th place. As a result Frentzen moves into third place but he is still under pressure from Irvine. There is then a big gap back to Ralf Schumacher and another gap to Alexander Wurz, who has a trail of cars behind him consisting of Hill, Herbert, Olivier Panis and Jarno Trulli, although the Italian soon stops with mechanical trouble and Hill goes off and retires with handling trouble.

Coulthard begins to fight back and on lap 16 passes Panis but the stewards later decide that David completed the manoeuvre while running across the chicane and he is given a 10-sec stop-go penalty. Johnny Herbert continues his charge and overtakes Wurz for sixth on lap 19. The major pit stops begin two laps later when Frentzen stops. On the following lap Irvine comes in and emerges ahead of the Jordan on the road. Salo stops on lap 23 but stays ahead of Irvine while Hakkinen stops on lap 24. The McLaren refuelling goes wrong and Mika spends 25 seconds stationary. He is fourth when he rejoins. He is right behind Frentzen and gets ahead on lap 26 but almost immediately he suffers a right rear tyre failure at high speed and goes off at the entry to the stadium area. The McLaren ends up going head-on into a tyre barrier but Hakkinen is unhurt. On the same lap Salo moves over and lets Irvine take the lead. McLaren's hopes evaporate when Coulthard pits for his penalty and drops to sixth.

The order remains fairly stable in the closing laps. Coulthard stops unexpectedly in the closing laps for new tyres and on lap 41 Herbert's promising run ends with a gearbox failure. Also disappearing is Pedro de la Rosa who has a fairly big accident at the first corner on lap 37. The two Ferraris come home to an unexpected 1-2 finish with Frentzen third. Fourth place goes to Ralf Schumacher while Coulthard ends his day in fifth with Olivier Panis giving Prost a point for sixth place.