Lap-by-lap Report

1255BST: Cars out on warm-up lap.

Lap 1: Coulthard away brilliantly to lead. Hakkinen in second, Frentzen third. Hill starts badly and overtaken by Zanardi and Schumacher. Takagi and Zonta left on grid.

Lap 2: Coulthard leads by 1.426s. Order - Coulthard, Hakkinen, Frentzen, Irvine, Schumacher, Zanardi.



Lap 3: Coulthard extends lead to 2.152s. Coulthard has caught Zonta already and preparing to lap him.

Lap 4: Coulthard passes Zonta. Takagi retires.

Lap 5: Hakkinen now 2.780s behind Coulthard, while Irvine is nearly 6s behind.

Race order: Coulthard, Hakkinen, Frentzen, Irvine, Schumacher, Zanardi, Hill, Salo, Barrichello, Herbert, Alesi, Fisichella, Wurz, Trulli, Panis, Villeneuve, Badoer, Diniz.

Lap 6: Coulthard moving away from Hakkinen (3.405s), and 8.671s ahead of Frentzen.

Lap 7: Little action occurring on circuit as field loses more ground to leader Coulthard.

Lap 9: Coulthard, Hakkinen (6.273s), Frentzen (12.769s), Irvine (18.740).

Lap 11: Race order the same as on Lap 5 except Alesi has moved up to 10th from Herbert, and Wurz has moved down to 15th from 13th.

Lap 12: Coulthard slightly extends lead over Hakkinen in spite of putting in slower time.

Lap 13: Those on two-stop strategies expected in pits soon.

Lap 14: Badoer (17th) pits. Alesi (10th) pits. Herbert locks brakes and is overtaken by Wurz. Gene pits.

Lap 15: Coulthard stretching away and is 9.323s ahead of Hakkinen. Herbert and Diniz pit.

Lap 16: Hill (9th) pits and keeps position on exit. Frentzen (3rd) pits. Salo (8th) pits.

Lap 17: Hakkinen (2nd) pits. Irvine (4th) pits.

Lap 18: Race leader Coulthard pits. Away without a problem and retain first place.

Lap 19: Race order - Coulthard, Schumacher, Hakkinen, Zanardi, Frentzen, Irvine. Schumacher and Zanardi have not been into pits yet.

Diniz crashes at Eau Rouge, spinning down track and ending up in the gravel.

Lap 20: Barrichello loses two places as Alesi and Wurz overtake him. Zanardi pits.

Lap 22: Schumacher pits.

Lap 23: Hakkinen puts in fastest lap (1.53.955) to close gap on Coulthard.

Lap 24: Coulthard responds to Hakkinen to extend lead.

Lap 27: Hakkinen 16.307 ahead of Frentzen. Villeneuve pits for first (and only?) time. Hill (5th) closing in on Irvine (4th).

Lap 28: Hill pits. Herbert out of the race, spinning off.

Lap 30: Race oder - Coulthard, Hakkinen, Frentzen, Irvine, Salo, Schumacher, Zanardi, Alesi, Hill, Barrichello, Trulli, Fisichella, Panis, Wurz, Villeneuve, Gene, Badoer, de la Rosa.

Hakkinen pits. Frentzen nips in and takes second while Hakkinen in pits.

Lap 32: Coulthard pits and away still in first. Frentzen pits followed by Irvine, who gets out just in front of team-mate Salo.

Lap 33: Badoer out

Lap 35: Salo pits and overtaken by Hill. Coulthard 13.5s ahead of Hakkinen. Zonta on the grass but returns to track. De la Rosa out.

Lap 36: Coulthard 13.876s ahead. Zonta retires.

Lap 37: Gap between two McLarens now 15s.

Lap 39: Race among top three appears to be winding down, with first three well spread out. May now just be running to the line. However, Irvine trying to catch Frentzen for third, but is 12s behind.

Lap 41: Coulthard laps Villeneuve, who looks as though he may finish for the first time this year.

Lap 44: Coulthard starts last lap.

Coulthard crosses line to win his second race of the season. Moves ahead of Frentzen for third in drivers' championship (46 points)

Hakkinen second, so maximum points for McLaren.

Frentzen third, Irvine fourth.

Hakkinen now one point ahead of Irvine in drivers' championship.