Belgian GP - Spa-Francorchamps - 27 August 2000

Most cars started a wet Belgian GP with medium-wet tyres. Because of the amount of water already on the ground, the stewards decided that the GP should have a rolling start, with the cars just carrying on behind the safety car after the formation lap. The standard starting procedure was cancelled to avoid accidents. The pace/safety car came in at the end of the formation lap making Häkkinen effectively the pace maker. The green flags waved indicating the official start of racing as soon as the pace/safety car went in. After the rolling start Häkkinen was the race leader, in front of Trulli, Button, M. Schumacher, Coulthard and R. Schumacher. Barrichello had overtaken Herbert as soon as the race proper had started, gaining one position. On lap four Button overtook Trulli, but had too much speed and went wide. The young Briton managed not to hit the side, but Trulli took back his second place. Behind them, M. Schumacher waited to see if he could take advantage of their duel. On lap five Button tried to attack Trulli again, but positioned the car wrongly and opened the door to M. Schumacher, who went ahead into third position behind the Jordan. Very shortly afterwards M. Schumacher easily overtook Trulli, taking advantage of his skill on the wet. Button tried to overtake Trulli on M. Schumacher's tail, touched Trulli's Jordan and forced the unfortunate Italian out. Coulthard and R. Schumacher took advantage of the situation and went ahead of Button, who found himself in fifth position ahead of Villeneuve. The crowd cheered as M. Schumacher set off in chase of race - and Championship - leader Häkkinen. As the tarmac got drier and drier, on lap six Alesi, Verstappen, Gené and Heidfeld all went into the pits to put on slicks. As the cars on slick tyres lapped fastest lap after fastest lap, the Ferrari mechanics started getting ready with slick tyres. Sure enough, on lap six M. Schumacher went into the pits for slick tyres 6.3 seconds), followed by his brother. On the following lap Häkkinen too went to the pits for slick tyres (7.2 seconds), the McLaren team possibly having left it a bit too late for comfort. Häkkinen managed to come out in the lead, albeit with a much reduced gap to second position Coulthard, who had not stopped yet. M. Schumacher was in third position. On the following lap Coulthard had his slick tyres put on (7.2 seconds), leaving M. Schumacher move into second position some seven seconds behind Häkkinen. On lap 10 Fisichella's car died on him with electrical problems and the Benetton driver retired from the race. At this point Häkkinen lead, followed by the Schumacher brothers, Alesi, Button and Villeneuve. Coulthard had slipped into ninth position. M. Schumacher kept on eating away Häkkinen's lead and by lap 12 the gap between the two title contenders had been considerably reduced. On lap 13 Häkkinen went into a half-spin after touching a white line and went out to the side, letting M. Schumacher out in the lead. The Flying Finn managed to keep the engine running and not to hit the side and rejoined in second position some six seconds behind the leading Ferrari. M. Schumacher immediately put in the fastest lap of the race. Heidfeld stopped by the side with white smoke coming out of the car and retired. On lap 16 Barrichello on the second Ferrari started attacking Villeneuve for a point position, with Frentzen and Coulthard following them closely. Häkkinen did not seem to be able to keep up with M. Schumacher, who was carefully choosing a dry trajectory, and by the end of lap 18 the German had an advantage of over 10 seconds on the McLaren. On lap 19 Alesi went in for a fuel stop (9.2 seconds) and lost his fourth place to Button. On lap 20 Salo made a move on Irvine and took 12th position from him. In the meantime Häkkinen had started to recover and the gap in between himself and M. Schumacher began to decrease. On the same lap Barrichello had his pit stop (6.6 seconds). As Häkkinen was engaged in the chase of race leader M. Schumacher, his team mate Coulthard, who desperately needed a win to stay in the title race, was still stuck behind Frentzen in seventh position. On lap 21 M. Schumacher had his second, very long, surprisingly very early pit stop (11.1 seconds) and rejoined behind his younger brother Ralf and in front of Button on the other Williams. Häkkinen started pushing as much as he could to build up a good gap for his own pit stop, knowing that his rival had probably put in enough fuel to finish the race. On lap 25 Villeneuve went for his pit stop (9.4 seconds), putting Frentzen into fifth position and Coulthard into the points in sixth. On lap 26 R. Schumacher had his pit stop (8.9 seconds), putting his brother Michael into second position, some 14 seconds behind Häkkinen who stayed out delaying his pit stop. Despite Häkkinen's efforts, his McLaren could not match the Ferrari speed despite him being on a low fuel load and the Ferrari having enough fuel to finish the race. On the following lap Button went in for his second pit stop (9.3 seconds) from fourth place, rejoining in eighth position behind Barrichello. On lap 28 Häkkinen went in for his pit stop (8.8 seconds), losing his lead to M. Schumacher, who was dealing with a bit of backmarkers traffic at the time. On lap 30 Frentzen and Coulthard went for pit stops at the same time. Coulthard (9.6 seconds) managed to come out just before Frentzen (8.6 seconds), who had wasted time by overshooting his mark, and the Scot even managed to put a Jaguar in between himself and the Jordan. With 15 laps to go Häkkinen started pushing as much as he could and ate up some of the gap between himself and the leader. After the round of pit stops, M. Schumacher was in the lead, followed by Häkkinen, R. Schumacher, Barrichello, Button, Alesi and Coulthard. On lap 32 Barrichello limped back to the pits from fourth position with very low fuel. Barrichello's car stopped just behind the white line where the mechanics could not push it. He had to be pushed in by the marshals before the mechanics could touch it. On the same lap Alesi too retired. The mechanics pushed Barrichello to the pits, changed his tyres and refuelled the car, but the Ferrari would not come back to life and the Brazilian finally stepped out of the car and retired. Barrichello's and Alesi's retirements put Coulthard and Frentzen into fifth and sixth places. In the meantime Häkkinen had caught up with M. Schumacher and was looking for an opening to retake the lead. With eight laps to go Coulthard managed to overtake Button for fourth position. M. Schumacher was having problems with overheating tyres, giving Häkkinen on a good set of tyres a clear advantage. With five laps to go the two leaders came up behind the Minardi of Gené and the Finn tried to take advantage of the situation to overtake his rival, but M. Schumacher closed the door on him forcing him to brake. Gené let them through and they came up to Zonta. As M. Schumacher overtook Zonta on the outside, Häkkinen overtook him on the inside and, having more linear speed than M. Schumacher, managed to go in front for the lead. Having taken the lead, Häkkinen immediately started pulling away from the Ferrari. Häkkinen won the Belgian GP in front of M. and R. Schumacher, Coulthard, Button and Frentzen. Today's result puts M. Schumacher in a difficult position. He has lost all his advantage and does not appear to have the means to recover. In the last few laps of the Belgian GP, McLaren easily outperformed Ferrari and without Häkkinen's spin, the result of the race would have been sealed a long time before the overtaking manouevre on lapping Zonta. Barrichello's retirement made things even worse for Ferrari, who have now been left well behind in the Constructors Championship too. Today's race also puts Coulthard in a difficult position, as the Scot has already received second-rate treatment in the pit strategy employed by McLaren in Belgium and in Hungary, designed to suit Häkkinen's needs at the expenses of his team mate. Coulthard might well be asked to actively help Häkkinen win the Drivers Championship, sacrificing his own ambition. Next appointment is in Monza on 10 September.

Images from La Gazzetta dello Sport Online and Raisport