power steering failure on his race monocoque. Button used the spare Benetton; his mechanics remained on the grid to work on the car before the formation lap began, entailing an investigation by the race stewards resulting in Button incurring a ten-second stop-and-go penalty. When the five red lights went out to start the race, Michael Schumacher made a brisk getaway to lead going into the first corner. Barrichello in second made a slower start and allowed a pack of cars to approach. Coulthard, on the right-portion, steered to the middle to try and hold off Ralf Schumacher on his left and Frentzen to his right. As the available space was reduced going into the turn one braking area, Frentzen hit the right-hand sidepod of Coulthard's car sending him towards Ralf Schumacher's Williams. He made a second, harder contact that slowed Coulthard. Behind the first five drivers, Montoya made up five positions before the end of the start/finish straight. He carried too much momentum and drove off the track at turn one. Montoya lost several positions and almost made contact with Panis as he rejoined the track. Entering turn three, Montoya attempted to pass Irvine and the two cars collided, sending the Jaguar into the grass and a 180-degree spin. Mazzacane retired with a broken brake pedal and an engine failure. At the conclusion of lap one, Michael Schumacher led Häkkinen by 1.2 seconds and was a further second ahead of Frentzen in third. Barrichello challenged Ralf Schumacher for fourth and took the position when the latter ran deep under braking at turn one and fell to seventh. That enabled Coulthard to return to fifth as he had earlier passed Trulli. On lap two, Bernoldi became the race's second retiree when he lost control of his car exiting turn two and struck the left-hand barrier. Barrichello recorded an early fastest lap as he moved closer to attempt to pass Frentzen for third. On lap three, Barrichello attempted a pass on the right of Frentzen (who was on the racing line at the time) at turn nine, and the two made contact. Frentzen was sent into the grass; he avoided stalling his engine and rejoined the track in 16th. Barrichello continued in third albeit the toe-in on his front-left wheel was knocked out of alignment. Further down the order, the lightly fuelled Verstappen overtook Panis and Heidfeld to move into ninth on