Summary

Michael Schumacher has won today's Canadian race. It was a real hectic race with many incidents - a re-start and pace-car situations. Giancarlo Fisichella drove an excellent race to finish second.

Ricardo Rosset had a very good drive.

Notes

• R. Schumacher stalls his engine on the starting grid.
• Alesi, Herbert, Wurz and Trulli collide in the first corner. All return at the re-start with the T-car except Herbert who gets Alesi's car, which has been fixed, and he starts from the pits.
• Hakkinen looses the gears and retires.
• Trulli gets hit by Wurz and ends up on top of Alesi. Both drivers retire. Safety car on-track.
• Irvine has a flat tyre and comes back into the pits for new tyres.
• Diniz spins unto the grass and takes a lot of grass with him when he returns to the track. The reason why the grass was so easily loosened was that the organisation had just planted new sods because the grass had died due to dry weather. The safety car comes onto the track again.
• Salo crashes because something broke in the suspension as a result of the first lap accident. (Safety car)
• M. Schumacher enters the pits for his first stop during the safety car period. He re-enters the race and pushes Frentzen off the track. He gets a stop-and-go penalty. M. Schumacher later declared that he did not see Frentzen and apologised for his manoeuvre.
• Villeneuve tries to out-brake Fisichella for the lead, but he simply brakes too late and looses a lot of places. He then tries to retain his position by blocking the road, Tuero slams into the back of him. His rear wing breaks off, this is replaced in the pits.
  • Weather during race: Cloudy (12 Degrees C)

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

M. Schumacher (Ferrari) G Fisichella (Benetton-Playlife) B Irvine (Ferrari) G Wurz (Benetton-Playlife) B Barrichello (Stewart-Ford) B Magnussen (Stewart-Ford) B Nakano (Minardi-Ford) B Rosset (Tyrrell-Ford)B Diniz (Arrows) B Villeneuve (Winfield-Williams) G Not Classified Tuero (Minardi-Ford) B Hill (Jordan-Mugen) G Panis (Prost-Peugeot) B Frentzen (Winfield-Williams) G Herbert (Sauber-Petronas) G Coulthard (McLaren-Mercedes) B Salo (Arrows) B Takagi (Tyrrell-Ford) G Hakkinen (McLaren-Mercedes) B R. Schumacher (Jordan-Mugen) G Alesi (Sauber-Petronas) G Trulli (Prost-Peugeot) B B: Bridgestone G: Goodyear

1h 40m 57.355s + 16.662s + 1m 00.058s + 1m 03.232s + 1m 21.512s 1 lap 1 lap 1 lap 1 lap 6 laps   16 laps: electronic 26 laps: electronic 30 laps: spin 49 laps: spin 51 laps: spin 51 laps: throttle 51 laps: crash 69 laps: clutch 69 laps: gearbox 69 laps: clutch 69 laps: crash 69 laps: crash

The Standings

Drivers Championship table

Hakkinen (McLaren-Mercedes)	46
M. Schumacher (Ferrari)	34
Coulthard (McLaren-Mercedes)	29
Irvine (Ferrari)	19
Fisichella (Benetton-Playlife)	13
Wurz (Benetton-Playlife)	12
Frentzen (Winfield-Williams)	8
Villeneuve (Winfield-Williams)	8
Barrichello (Stewart-Ford)	4
Alesi (Sauber-Petronas)	3
Salo (Arrows)	3
Herbert (Sauber-Petronas)	1
Diniz (Arrows)	1
Magnussen (Stewart)	1

Constructor Championship table

McLaren-Mercedes	75
Ferrari	53
Benetton-Playlife	25
Winfield-Williams	16
Stewart-Ford	5
Sauber-Petronas	4
Arrows	4

The Quotes

• Hakkinen: "At the re-start of the race I experienced a gear box problem and I could not select second gear. It was all over after that. Now we have to work hard to gain maximum points in Magny-Cours."

• Coulthard: "I made a good start and fought off the challenges of Michael Schumacher, who, being on a two stop, as opposed to my one stop strategy, was carrying less fuel and was able to go quicker on the straights at the start of the race than I could. Despite the safety car's appearance on two occasions I maintained my lead. However, a throttle linkage problem on lap 19 reduced the engine power to half and forced me to retire from the race."

• M. Schumacher: "We have closed the gap to McLaren this weekend and I am very happy about this. I am also optimistic about the future as we have some more developments to come for the next few races and I hope we can reach the same level as McLaren or even get ahead of them. My special thanks to Goodyear, who gave us a competitive tyre here and I am sure that will continue."

• Fisichella: "Two second positions in two races is an incredible result. I can't quite believe it! I would like to say a big thank you to the Mild Seven Benetton Playlife team and particularly to my mechanics. I had a big problem at the beginning of the race because I was only doing one pit stop, so I had a lot of fuel in the car. For the first ten to 15 laps there was a lot of understeer. I also had a problem with third gear. The gears got stuck when I changed up and this got worse as the race went on. But I am delighted with second place. It is a fantastic result."

• Hill: "I feel so disappointed so I can't imagine how Eddie and the team feels. We really needed to get points, and we were looking not only to do that but to be on to the podium, only then to be caught out by what seems to be an electrical problem. We can take some comfort from the fact that we were not only up with the front runners, but were making fairly respectable times and were competitive. I was running beautifully on a one stop strategy and then I got a misfire. It felt so fantastic to be up at the front again. This was the first time this year that I have been able to race for the top three positions and I was not going to let second or third place go that easily, so I enjoyed some racing with Michael!"