the spare Williams car set up for Ralf Schumacher because Button's race car had an engine failure, balance problems on the low-grip circuit and slow-speed turns when on the harder tyre compound. Button additionally struggled with driving the spare car. His teammate Ralf Schumacher qualified 19th in the Williams team's worst qualifying performance of the season. The two Minardi drivers of Marc Gené and Gastón Mazzacane qualified 20th and 22nd; both Minardi cars were affected by a lack of grip. Burti in 21st separated both Minardi cars during his first Formula One qualifying session. Qualifying classification Warm-up The drivers took to the track in cloudy and dry conditions at 09:30 Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) for a 30-minute warm-up session. Barrichello set the session's fastest lap time with a 1:12.480 he recorded with two minutes remaining. Coulthard was second and his teammate Häkkinen was third after being fastest until Barrichello's time. Verstappen came fourth after setting the pace after 15 minutes. Barrichello's teammate Michael Schumacher was fifth in the other Ferrari car. Zonta completed the top six, 1.1 seconds slower than Barrichello. The session passed without a major incident. Häkkinen went into the gravel at the right-hand last turn. His teammate Coulthard ran wide at the same corner and went onto the grass before requiring a replacement nose cone following a collision with a Jordan car. Race The race, which commenced before 85,112 spectators at 14:00 local time, lasting for 71 laps for a distance of . The conditions on the grid were dry and cloudy before the race. The air temperature ranged from with the track temperature between ; weather forecasts indicated a 30 per cent chance of rain. While on an reconnaissance lap, Burti's car developed a sudden drop in water pressure and had to start with his team's spare car from the end of the pit lane. Michael Schumacher also opted to use his team's spare car. Häkkinen maintained the lead into the first corner. Coulthard drove alongside his teammate who was on the outside but decided to remain second on the unclean inside of the circuit. The Ferrari pair made slow starts and bunched up the field behind them. Michael Schumacher was on the inside line with his teammate Barrichello on the outside and Zonta close by Schumacher. Barrichello was reported to have been under instruction to allow Schumacher past since his teammate was on a