car. Jacques Villeneuve damaged his car's rear end in a crash against the tyre barrier at Les Fagnes turn later in the session, but was able to continue. Race The Grand Prix, which lasted for 44 laps over a distance of , commenced before 83,000 spectators at 14:00 local time, with air and track temperatures at ; clouds, but no rain, were predicted for the race. The rain had stopped by the time of the race's start but there was standing water on the track, causing heavy spray and impairing visibility, which meant that the race would start behind the safety car following consultation between the drivers and FIA race director Charlie Whiting on the track's condition; all cars except Pedro Diniz' had wet tyres. The intermediate and full wet tyres were reported to be suitable for short stints, thus the normal wet or grooved tyres were the tyre selection for the event. Every driver had a car setup with compromises made for wet-weather conditions and additions to downforce as well as setup changes for dry weather racing. Instead of a two-by-two standing start, the race began with an American-style single file rolling start without a formation lap. During the safety car period, Diniz spun off; he was passed by Pedro de la Rosa, who received a ten-second stop-go penalty which he served on lap 13. The safety car entered the pit lane after one lap, and the cars were allowed to overtake after crossing the start-finish line. Häkkinen maintained his lead going into the first corner, followed by Trulli, Button, Michael Schumacher and Coulthard. Barrichello overtook Herbert for ninth place at the first turn. At the end of the first racing lap, Diniz dropped to the rear of the field. De la Rosa lost 16th position on lap three after running wide at turn 18, losing two places to Alesi and Verstappen. Häkkinen began to pull away from Trulli. Attention switched to Button, who tried to pass Trulli, whom he felt was baulking him and noticed Michael Schumacher approaching him, On the fourth lap Button slipstreamed Trulli on the approach to the Bus Stop chicane, but he ran wide and left the inside open for Michael Schumacher to take third position. On that lap, Alesi was the first driver to pit for dry tyres after informing his team over the radio of his intent to do so when the