Irvine, Ralf and Mika Salo. At the front, Häkkinen soon began to edge away from Schumacher, slowly but surely. On lap 20, the gap was out to 3 seconds before it stabilized until the pitstops. Meanwhile, Irvine accidentally pushed the speed limiter button, allowing Ralf and Salo to get ahead. On lap 26, over 25 seconds behind the leaders, Coulthard dived into the pits. On the next lap, Häkkinen stopped to refuel with a 3.2 second lead. He was stationary for 7.6 seconds unlike Schumacher who was there for 10 seconds. This nearly doubled Häkkinen's lead, up to 5.7 seconds. Barrichello was the last driver in the top 4 to stop and he came out in front of Coulthard again. Behind the top four, Villeneuve, Ralf and Salo were battling for fifth, sixth and seventh and left Irvine and Trulli to battle for eighth and ninth. At the front, Häkkinen hit a piece of wreckage which destroyed the front of the floor, making the car more difficult to drive. He recovered and increased his lead back up to over five seconds by lap 39. But then Schumacher began to close in. On lap 41, it came down by a second, after something in the electronics went wrong on Häkkinen's car. It immediately reset itself but Häkkinen had lost two seconds. On lap 43, however, Schumacher had to deal with the Sauber of Pedro Diniz who tried to be a bit gentle and the two nearly collided. Schumacher lost over a second. When Häkkinen pitted on lap 44 with a 3-second lead, Michael took over the lead. Next lap, Barrichello and Coulthard went into the pits from third. Coulthard's stop was faster, and he came out just in front of the Ferrari. McLaren had won the smaller battle, i.e. the battle for third. Now it was left to Schumacher to get ahead of Häkkinen. Ralf Schumacher would benefit from the retirement of Frentzen and the button pressing issues regarding Eddie Irvine in the leading Jaguar had moved up to 6th would soon retire on lap 46 with the result of fuel pressure problems whilst battling for 5th with Villeneuve. Michael Schumacher came into the pits on lap 49. His stop was short and he came ahead of Häkkinen. There was a massive difference in their in and out lap times, which made the difference. Coulthard still could not match the pace