in the run to the Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel sequence of fast corners. At the completion of the scheduled pit stops by lap 44, the running order was Schumacher and Hill in close attendance, then a gap back to a similar battle between Herbert and Coulthard, then Alesi, Blundell, Barrichello, Panis, Frentzen—whom Panis had just passed for the third time—Martini, Badoer, Salo, Boullion, Gachot and Moreno, the last of whom retired four laps later with a lack of hydraulic pressure in his Forti's pneumatic engine valves. Schumacher and Hill now had similar fuel loads, but Hill had a fresh set of tyres and immediately began pressuring Schumacher, quickly reducing the gap to less than half-a-second. On lap 46, Hill attempted a passing manoeuvre at Stowe corner, but was unable to complete it, due to the presence of Boullion's lapped Sauber. Further around the lap, Hill tried again, diving up the inside of Schumacher at the entry to the Priory left-hander, but Schumacher turned in to take the racing line and the two collided, both spinning into the gravel trap, which caused their retirement from the race. The retirement of the two leaders promoted their teammates into their own battle for the lead; the two almost colliding at the same corner as Coulthard attempted to pass Herbert by making a lunge up the inside of his car, as Hill had done to Schumacher. Coulthard had not been informed about his stop-go penalty by the team, as they did not want to distract him, but he saw the penalty notification on one of the large television screens situated around the circuit. He passed Herbert on lap 49, but took his penalty two laps later and dropped to third position, behind Alesi. The Ferrari driver was still close behind Herbert, but cut his pace in the final laps as his 412T2's oil pressure began to fade. With the top three positions settled, attention switched to Barrichello, who had closed up to the back of Blundell's car and was faster than the McLaren driver. On the penultimate lap, Barrichello lined up his car to attempt a pass, but Blundell defended his position and the two collided: Barrichello crashed out, but Blundell was able to continue with a punctured left-rear tyre which allowed Panis to overtake him on the last lap. It was the second year in succession that Barrichello had collided with a McLaren