Villeneuve moved into eighth place when he passed Herbert on lap seven, while Trulli passed his teammate Frentzen from 11th position. Verstappen became the race's first retirement when he coasted across the circuit with electronic gearbox problems on lap ten and was pushed into the garage. Diniz made his first pit stop on lap 13, starting the first round of pit stops. At the front of the field, Häkkinen increased the gap between himself and Michael Schumacher to two seconds, who in turn was a further ten seconds ahead of Coulthard in third. Ralf Schumacher was a further 8.8 seconds behind Coulthard, but was drawing ahead of Irvine in fifth. Further back, Trulli made a pit stop from tenth position on lap 17 due to him being fuelled light to gain track position. He emerged in 18th position. Irvine became the first of the front runners to make a pit stop on the following lap and emerged behind Frentzen. Wurz, Herbert, Salo and Heidfeld all made pit stops on lap 19, while Trulli lost time after going off the track. On the 20th lap, Ralf Schumacher, Villeneuve, Frentzen, De La Rosa and Fisichella made their first pit stops. Barrichello and Button made pit stops on the following lap, and rejoined ahead of Irvine. Alesi retired from the race with an engine failure that dropped oil on the circuit and he spun on the circuit at either turns four or five on lap 21. Häkkinen was asked by his team to make a pit stop earlier than scheduled on lap 22. Michael Schumacher led one lap before Brawn called him into the pit lane for extra fuel on lap 23. He fell behind Häkkinen since his pit stop was slightly longer. Coulthard led a single lap before he made his first pit stop on lap 24, relinquishing the lead to teammate Häkkinen. On the same lap, Villeneuve passed Irvine into turn 16 for seventh position. All of the drivers had made pit stops by the end of lap 25. The race order was Häkkinen, Michael Schumacher, Coulthard, Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, and Button. Häkkinen set a new fastest lap of the race on lap 26, a 1:39.189, as he built a gap between himself and Michael Schumacher to 2.9 seconds. Trulli became the first driver to make a second pit stop on lap 28. Light rain began to fall on lap 30