and replaced the left-hand side turning vane as a precaution to ensure there was no loose bodywork and changed his tyres. In the meantime, Coulthard's race car had a gearbox problem and he switched to the spare McLaren for the start. Michael Schumacher made a brisk start to maintain his pole position advantage. Coulthard in second made a slow getaway on the dirty side of the track, providing less grip, and Barrichello overtook him on his left into turn one. Barrichello then veered across to protect his teammate from Coulthard. In the middle of the pack, Irvine attempted to pass Fisichella on the left; he lost control of the rear of his car on some dirt and got beached in the gravel trap. Trulli slowed to avoid a collision with Heidfeld. Further round the lap, Marques ran off the circuit after he and Frentzen made contact in turn two; both drivers continued. Verstappen made the best getaway in the field, moving from 21st to 16th by the conclusion of the first lap, as Frentzen fell four positions over the same distance. At the end of the first lap, Michael Schumacher led his teammate Barrichello by 1.3 seconds with Coulthard a further half a second behind in third. Ralf Schumacher was fourth, Trulli fifth and Häkkinen sixth. As the top three began to pull away from the rest of the field, extending their deficit over Ralf Schumacher to 6.8 seconds on lap five, the stewards informed the Benetton team that Button had jumped the start for which he was imposed a ten-second stop-and-go penalty. He took the penalty on the following lap. Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher was conserving his tyre usage because he felt going faster would become more important as the race progressed. Trulli in fifth slowed Häkkinen, Heidfeld, Montoya and Heidfeld from the eighth lap as Hakkinen attempted an unsuccessful overtake on Trulli. On lap nine, Burti became the Grand Prix's second retirement after he spun into a gravel trap at turn 14 on heavily blistered tyres reducing grip. Alesi overtook de la Rosa at turn two for 12th on lap 10. At the front of the field, Barrichello began to tactically slow Coulthard by a second per lap on lap 12, allowing his teammate Michael Schumacher to lead comfortably while lapping slower traffic later on. That lap, Bernoldi locked his rear brakes in him catching Alonso and retired by