At the start of the race Mika Hakkinen makes a good start and is followed by David Coulthard and a fast-starting Jacques Villeneuve. Eddie Irvine makes a poor start and drops from second to fifth, behind Michael Schumacher. Jarno Trulli also makes a great start and is sixth, while the big loser is Rubens Barrichello who drops from seventh to 10th. At the back of the grid Olivier Panis and Marc Gene both fail to get off the grid, Panis finally getting going from the pitlane, but local hero Gene retiring.

Hakkinen immediately begins to build a lead with Coulthard in his wake. Mika sets four consecutive fastest laps to build a gap of 2.7secs by the end of the fourth lap. Coulthard is unable to keep up with Hakkinen and Villeneuve is clearly holding up the two Ferraris. The rest of the field remains static, except that Alexander Wurz makes a mistake on lap four and goes for a ride across a sandtrap, allowing Mika Salo to take 16th place.

Villeneuve remains under intense pressure from Schumacher but there is nothing the Ferrari driver can do to pass him and the story is repeated down through the field with the order remaining static until the pit stops begin on lap 17 with Pedro de la Rosa, who is followed by Johnny Herbert and the other three-stop runners - mainly backmarkers.

Irvine is the first of the major runners to pit on lap 22, followed on lap 23 by Villeneuve and Schumacher. The Ferrari team does a better job than BAR and both Ferraris emerge ahead of Villeneuve. Coulthard and the briefly third Alesi stop on lap 26 and the Scotsman has a rather longer than expected stop and drops to 13.9s behind Hakkinen. During the pit stop phase Alex Zanardi's Williams suffers a gearbox failure and the field is further thinned out as both Alesi and Panis disappear with a similar problems.

As Hakkinen goes away at the front Coulthard finds his second set of tyres difficult and Schumacher is able to close up to him - setting a fastest lap - and by the time the second pits stops come around he is right on David's tail. Further back Frentzen goes out with gearbox trouble on lap 36.

On lap 40 Villeneuve is the first to make his second stop but it goes wrong and he retires with gearbox failure. At the same time Diniz and Herbert suffer similar problems and all disappear. Irvine stops on lap 41 and Trulli moves to fifth until he stops on lap 42. Williams does a good job with Ralf Schumacher, who pits on lap 44, and he is able to get ahead of Trulli. Michael Schumacher comes in on lap 41 but finds himself behind Tora Takagi, who is also pitting, and it costs him vital seconds. Hakkinen pits on lap 44 and for a lap Coulthard leads before pitting. He is able to get out just ahead of Schumacher and then begins to pull away, happy with his third set of tyres.

With the temperature having risen Schumacher finds his tyres not at their best and drops back from Coulthard.The order at the front is set with Hakkinen a long way clear of Coulthard and Schumacher. Irvine is a lonely fourth while Ralf Schumacher is by himself in fifth, while Trulli has his hands full keeping Barrichello and Damon Hill behind him. To complicate matters this group is about to be lapped by Hakkinen. On lap 63 Barrichello moves over for the Ferrari driver but this gives Damon Hill the chance to challenge him and the Stewart.