field, Michael Schumacher had started his push to the front and was back up to eleventh after only nine laps. After thirteen laps Häkkinen and Coulthard were leading third-placed Irvine by 18 seconds when Coulthard suddenly came into the pits and retired with transmission problems. One lap later Häkkinen lost his advantage on Irvine when the safety car was deployed; Villeneuve had lost his rear wing on the back straight and he was lucky to touch the wall only slowly after a series of high-speed spins. The race was run behind safety car for three laps while Villeneuve's car was removed. Diniz, Zonta and Badoer took the opportunity to try to save time by making a pit stop while the safety car was out. When the race was restarted on lap 18, Häkkinen seemed to be in trouble again when his car did not accelerate properly, bunching up the cars behind him. Several drivers swerved around the slow McLaren, including Barrichello who was later given a stop-and-go penalty because he passed Michael Schumacher before the start/finish line. After the race the Brazilian claimed that he passed Schumacher accidentally while trying to avoid a collision. Irvine took the lead ahead of Frentzen, Trulli, Ralf Schumacher, and Michael Schumacher, while Häkkinen came into the pits after a slow lap and retired with throttle problems. On lap 19 Zanardi crashed and the safety car was deployed for the second time. Barrichello and Trulli made their pit stops, with Trulli even making two. The race was restarted once again on lap 25. Irvine led followed by Frentzen, Ralf Schumacher, Michael Schumacher and Diniz. On lap 27 Michael Schumacher had a puncture but he made it back to the pits. The front wing of his Ferrari had been damaged by vibrations and it was replaced with a wing originally intended for Irvine's car, bearing the number 4. On lap 28 Diniz had to retire from 4th with a transmission problem. Barrichello was now 4th, followed by Zonta and Takagi. On the next lap Wurz had a spectacular spin when his rear suspension failed. On lap 32 Barrichello came into the pits to take his stop-and-go penalty. Zonta made his second pit stop. Badoer was 5th for a short while. On lap 34 Ralf Schumacher made a pit stop and dropped to 4th. Three laps later Irvine and Frentzen pitted at the same time but Irvine