Villeneuve. Herbert made his only pit stop on the same lap although he stalled and rejoined the circuit in twelfth place. Gené, Mazzacane, Ralf Schumacher and Verstappen made pit stops between laps 28 and 29. Villeneuve tried to retake fourth position from Häkkinen at turn fifteen on the 30th lap but he braked later than expected. Häkkinen made a pit stop on lap 35, emerging behind Villeneuve and Irvine. Coulthard managed to close to within two seconds of Michael Schumacher when he made his second pit stop at the conclusion of lap 38. He returned to driving on a set of scrubbed front tyres. On the same lap, Gené stopped next to the pit lane barrier and retired from the Grand Prix with a left-rear wheel failure. Michael Schumacher made a pit stop on the following lap and remained in the lead. Barrichello became the leader for one lap and made his pit stop on lap 41. This allowed Michael Schumacher to reclaim the lead. By the start of lap 45, Coulthard had closed to within two seconds of Michael Schumacher. That lap saw Ralf Schumacher being called into his garage by his team to retire and prevent a failure of a malfunctioning engine oil supply system. Zonta pulled off into a gravel trap with an blown engine that incrementally became hotter two laps later. On the 50th lap, Herbert's car suffered a rear suspension failure under braking for the fourth corner, losing both his rear wheels. He went through the gravel trap and struck the turn four tyre barrier. Herbert exited his car unaided and was helped to a stretcher by track marshals for transport to the circuit's medical centre for precautionary x-rays. Mazzacane was the race's and season's final retirement with an engine piston failure on lap 54. Michael Schumacher held off Coulthard and crossed the finish line first on lap 56 to secure his ninth victory of the season and 44th of his career in a time of 1'35:54.235, at an average speed of . He matched the record number of wins set by himself in 1995 and Nigel Mansell in 1992. Coulthard finished second in his McLaren, 0.7 seconds behind Michael Schumacher, Barrichello was third in the other Ferrari, with Häkkinen in fourth. Villeneuve in fifth achieved his third consecutive points-scoring finish and Irvine who was 1.8 seconds behind the former completed the points-scorers in sixth.