to block Michael Schumacher's path, allowing his teammate Häkkinen to steer left and take the race lead. Noticing Häkkinen to the left of him, Michael Schumacher went across to the outside line and his left-rear wheel and Fisichella's front wing made contact. Both drivers went off the circuit, struck the tyre barrier at turn one and retired from the race. The safety car was not deployed since both cars were far off the track. Barrichello moved from 18th to 10th place at the end of the first lap. At the completion of the first lap, Häkkinen led from Coulthard, Trulli, De La Rosa, Irvine, Herbert, and Verstappen. Häkkinen began to maintain his lead from teammate Coulthard. After Irvine fell to seventh place when Verstappen overtook him for sixth, Herbert moved into fifth position on lap two. Further down the field Barrichello continued to gain positions when he passed both BAR drivers for eighth. The McLaren drivers managed to maintain a gap to Trulli who set the race's fastest lap, 1:46.321. Irvine lost a further position to Barrichello on lap three following a short battle, as Frentzen claimed 14th from Diniz. On lap four, Frentzen passed Heidfeld for 13th. On the same lap Verstappen locked up his tyres to avoid a collision with Herbert. This allowed Barrichello to pass Verstappen for sixth into the Jim Clark chicane on lap five as the Arrows car struggled under braking into the chicanes. Herbert lost fifth position to Barrichello on lap six with Frentzen continuing to move up the field by passing Ralf Schumacher and Wurz for 11th. Barrichello began setting consecutive fastest laps as he closed the gap to De La Rosa. Frentzen passed Zonta for tenth position on lap seven. On the following lap, half of Verstappen's engine cover was shed from its chassis. Frentzen managed to gain a further four positions in the next four laps. Further down, Ralf Schumacher overtook Zonta for 11th and Diniz passed teammate Salo for 14th. Barrichello caught De La Rosa by lap eleven and passed him for fourth a lap later. De La Rosa began to come under pressure from Frentzen. Herbert pulled over to the side of the track with clutch failure on lap 13. Barrichello passed Trulli for third under braking for the Jim Clark chicane two laps later. Barrichello became the first driver to make a pit stop by entering the pit