Summary

Jacques Villeneuve has closed the championship gap to one point with today's win and Michael Schumacher's stop and go penalty for passing Heinz-Harald Frentzen under yellow.

Jarno Trulli showed team-boss Alain Prost in his last Grand Prix that he deserves the second seat next season. Olivier Panis will replace Trulli next week.

• Marques doesn't start the race because his car had been found illegal after qualifying. The team could appeal to this but they decided not to because of the risk of an higher fine.
• Berger looses his race in the formation lap and starts from the pits.
• Alesi and Irvine collide. Both drivers retire. (lap 26)
• Barrichello runs wide in an attempt to keep Schumacher behind him and retires because of a broken front suspension. (lap 64)
  • Weather during race: Sunny (15-18 °C)

The Result (71 Lap Race)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.   13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

Villeneuve (Williams-Renault) G Coulthard (McLaren-Mercedes) G Frentzen (Williams-Renault) G Fisichella (Jordan-Peugeot) G R. Schumacher (Jordan-Peugeot) G M. Schumacher (Ferrari) G Hill (Arrows-Yamaha) B Herbert (Sauber-Petronas) G Morbidelli (Sauber-Petronas) G Berger (Benetton-Renault) G Katayama (Minardi-Hart) B Verstappen (Tyrrell-Ford) G Not Classified Diniz (Arrows-Yamaha) B Barrichello (Stewart-Ford) B Magnussen (Stewart-Ford) B Trulli (Prost-Mugen) B Nakano (Prost-Mugen) B Salo (Tyrrell-Ford) G Irvine (Ferrari) G Alesi (Benetton-Renault) G Hakkinen (McLaren-Mercedes) G Marques (Minardi-Hart) B B: Bridgestone G: Goodyear

1h 27m 35.999s + 0m 02.909s + 0m 03.962s + 0m 12.127s + 0m 31.859s + 0m 33.411s + 0m 37.207s + 0m 49.057s + 1m 06.455s 1 lap 2 laps 2 laps   4 laps: suspension 7 laps: suspension 13 laps: engine 13 laps: engine 14 laps: engine 23 laps: gearbox 33 laps: crash 34 laps: crash 71 laps: engine DNS

        Fastest Lap: Jacques Villeneuve 1m 11.814s

The Quotes

• Villeneuve: "The positive thing is that we took nine points from Michael and the championship is looking much better now. I feel great. We beat Michael there last year and I think we have a better package."

• M. Schumacher: "My car worked a lot better in the race than I expected after qualifying. Our biggest problem at the moment is that we are not able to qualify well. I think I could have finished second without the penalty, as after the pit-stop I was right behind Villeneuve. Obviously I did not see the yellow flag because I was concentrating on my fight with Frentzen and Berger. I think the flag was waved on the left side of this right hand corner. I think the flags should be made more visible and waved on both sides of the track. I am not too unhappy as at least I managed to pick up a point."

• Irvine: "Running on the soft tyres, I began to have handling problems around the twelfth lap, so I backed off. Then after a few laps, the tyres started working properly again, which is why I only made the one planned pit stop on lap 41. As for the accident, Alesi's Benetton was on the inside but I was running a lighter car than him ad was alongside him on the outside. His car oversteered and he hit me on the right rear wheel and on the right side. My car was too badly damaged for me to continue."

• Berger: "This was not what I expected for my home Grand Prix... When you want things to go specially well it all turns out in a big disappointment. Before we started, I had a signal on the dashboard and I came in for a check. The team told me to go, so I started from the pitlane. I span at the first corner because the tyres were still not in and then I was racing with no problem and I was pushing. Our strategy was not to change any tyres, to save time, so I did the whole race on the same set. At the end, they were really at the limit, so I locked up at the last corner and ended up in the gravel and couldn't do more than I did."

• Alesi: "It was going very well. Considering my poor starting position, I went up to eleventh on my first lap and slowly started to catch up with the others, getting up to 8th. I was called into the pits early so I could get some clear circuit. I came out and was ready to put a fight but at the second corner Irvine tried to overtake where there was no space whatsoever and I was pushed out."

• Katayama: "This is the best result we could achieve today with our package. My first set of tyres was really good and I could keep with the cars in front. On the second set I had oversteer and I could not go as quickly. The third set was as good as the first one but after eight laps into the third set, the engine noise started to be strange and I decided to slow down a little bit to save the engine."

• Marques: "I am really sad I was not able to start the race. It was awkward to be a spectator from the pits. Now I want to put this behind me and focus on the Luxembourg Grand Prix next weekend."

• Verstappen: "I had some fun with Mika and Ukyo at the start and managed to stay ahead of them until my tyres went off. It left me with a big oversteer problem which meant that I couldn't push at all in the high-speed corners. The team quickly changed what had been a one-stop strategy to allow me to come in earlier, so we could fit new tyres and adjust the front flap. This helped the handling, but of course we had to pit again later in the race and with other teams only stopping once, I could not catch up, despite having two good stops and no problems."

• Salo: "I had quite a good start and got past Ukyo and Jos, then they both took me back. In fact, I think Jos and I must have gone past each other three times during the first lap! We had a quick pit stop which put me ahead of the Minardi and then I had a great scrap with Berger for half a lap. We were side by side all the way round and through the gears. I was on the harder tyres and they were OK -- my lap times were consistent and the handling was fine -- but then I couldn't change gear and had to retire."

The Standings

Drivers Championship table

M. Schumacher (Ferrari)	68
Villeneuve (Williams)	67
Frentzen(Williams)	31
Coulthard (McLaren)	30
Alesi (Benetton)	28
Berger (Benetton)	21
Fisichella (Jordan)	20
Irvine (Ferrari)	18
Panis (Prost)	15
Hakkinen (McLaren)	14
Herbert (Sauber)	14
R. Schumacher (Jordan)	13
Hill (Arrows)	7
Barrichello (Stewart)	6
Wurz (Benetton)	4
Trulli (Prost)	3
Salo (Tyrrell)	2
Nakano (Prost)	2
Larini (Sauber)	1

Constructors Championship table

Williams-Renault G	98
Ferrari G	86
Benetton-Renault G	53
McLaren-Mercedes G	44
Jordan-Peugeot G	33
Prost-Mugen B	20
Sauber-Petronas G	15
Arrows-Yamaha B	7
Stewart-Ford B	6
Tyrrell-Ford G	2
B: Bridgestone G: Goodyear