Canadian GP - Montreal - 18 June 2000

Coulthard's car stalled on the grid before the formation lap and the McLaren mechanics come out on the track to lift the back of the car and restart the engine, with the other cars storming past them. The McLaren's engine restarted before all the other cars had gone past, so that the Scot was allowed to retake his place. The cars lined up for the start and as the lights changed M. Schumacher took the lead in front of Coulthard and Hakkinen. Barrichello slipped down the ranks as local hero Villeneuve took fourth place on the circuit named after his father. Irvine's Jaguar did not start and the unlucky Irishman retired from the starting grid. De La Rosa scored a personal victory as he took the inside line on Frentzen and overtook the Jordan. Villeneuve brought an attack on Hakkinen and overtook him for third position. Barrichello imitated him and overtook the McLaren too. De La Rosa found himself behind Hakkinen and started attacking him. There were more bad news for McLaren, as Coulthard, who was five seconds ahead of the pack getting away on M. Schumacher's tail, was suspected of having made a rolling start. With two laps gone Irvine finally joined the race in the spare car. On lap six M. Schumacher was in the lead half a second ahead of Coulthard. Villeneuve led - and blocked - the second group made up of Barrichello, Hakkinen and De La Rosa. On lap 12 the stewards gave Coulthard a 10 seconds stop-go penalty on the ground that the mechanics went on the track to restart his engine when they were not allowed to for their own safety. On lap 15 Coulthard went into the pits to sit his stop-go penalty and rejoined in 10th position behind Verstappen. Coulthard's stop left M. Schumacher on his own some 17 seconds ahead of second position Villeneuve and Frentzen moved up into the points in sixth position. On lap 16 Herbert slowly crawled into the pits and retired with gearbox problems. On the same lap Hakkinen attacked Barrichello and went in to the inside but the Brazilian fought back and held his position. The failed attack manoeuvre delayed Hakkinen slightly so that the Arrows of De La Rosa came very close to him, almost on his tail. On lap 20 De La Rosa had his first pit stop (7.6 seconds) from fifth position, leaving Frentzen in fifth position and Zonta in sixth. All other teams were running on a one stop strategy. On lap 23 drizzle made its appearance, making the track slippery. The bad luck did not end for Coulthard, as Verstappen's Arrows dropped oil on the track and caused Coulthard to spin out. The Scot recovered, but he lost three more positions. On lap 24 Barrichello attacked Villeneuve, who fought back for a long stretch, then had to give in at the hairpin. Barrichello immediately started getting away chasing his own team mate. Hakkinen immediately tried to overtake Villeneuve too to try and stay in sight of Barrichello, but the Canadian had every intention of holding on to his podium position. On lap 27 Trulli came to the inside of team mate Frentzen and overtook him on the hairpin, in a manoeuvre identical to Barrichello's when he had overtaken Villeneuve. The two Ferrari drivers had every intention of building a sizeable gap between themselves and the rest of the pack and started putting in fastest lap after fastest lap. Trulli, from fifth position, set his sight on Hakkinen and started pushing to catch up with the Finn, who was still getting frustrated stuck behind Villeneuve. On lap 34 M. Schumacher closed up on Mazzacane, the first driver to be lapped. On the same lap Frentzen went back to the pits with the mechanics not ready for him and retired. On lap 35 M. Schumacher came for his pit stop from the lead (9.5 seconds) and rejoined in second position behind team mate Barrichello. At the same time as M. Schumacher was in the pits, Hakkinen managed to go ahead of Villeneuve and set off in his chase. On lap 36 Heidfield stopped by the exit of the pit lanes with fire coming out of his Prost. On the following lap Alesi on the second Prost made a scheduled stop but stalled his engine in the pits. Hakkinen, finally released from Villeneuve, started pushing hard and put in the fastest lap. On lap 39 Trulli came in from fifth position for his pit stop (10.3 seconds). Alesi, who had rejoined the race after stalling in the pits, crawled slowly back to the pits, taking the second Prost out of the race. On lap 40 Hakkinen, on a lighter fuel load, had caught up with M. Schumacher who had already had his pit stop. On lap 41 Hakkinen had his pit stop (9.4 seconds) and rejoined behind team mate Coulthard who was in sixth position. On the following lap Barrichello came into the pits (8.7 seconds) and rejoined in second position, giving the lead back to M. Schumacher. On lap 42 Coulthard too had his pit stop, putting Hakkinen in the points. At about the same time the drizzle turned suddenly into very heavy rain, leaving all the top drivers who had just stopped out on dry tyres. Fisichella and Villeneuve came into the pits together and Fisichella managed to come out in front. M. Schumacher decided to come back into the pits for wet tyres. Barrichello came in as M. Schumacher was already in, so that Barrichello had to wait for his team mate to finish (21 seconds). One TV operator had got into the way of Barrichello's tyre change, making the team lose time and getting involved in a heated argument with the Ferrari mechanics. Hakkinen found himself in second position, but the McLaren had to go back to the pits for new tyres too. The stops for the wet tyre changes left Fisichella in second position behind M. Schumacher. Despite his wet tyres, M. Schumacher went out and cut the corner on turn one, but manage to control the car and rejoined still in the lead. Fisichella too had suffered a trip on the gravel that caused him to slip into third position behind Barrichello. On lap 52 De La Rosa suffered a collapsed suspension after being sent into the wall by a collision with Diniz and slowly tried to make his way back to pits. Irvine lost control of his car, went into a spin but managed to rejoin the race. In the last part of the GP, under the heavy rain, M. Schumacher was in the lead ahead of Barrichello, Fisichella, Hakkinen, Trulli and Wurz. With only a few laps to go Verstappen attacked Wurz and overtook him for sixth position. Verstappen caught up with Trulli and started attacking him for fifth position. With nine laps to go Verstappen took advantage of Trulli's caution in braking on the wet and took fifth position, setting off in chase of Hakkinen. With only four laps to go Villeneuve overtook Coulthard and went straight into the side of R. Schumacher, taking both his BAR and the Williams out. With only two laps to go Coulthard dove to the inside of Wurz and hit the Benetton on the side, causing part of the side wing to come out. M. Schumacher and Barrichello brought home a Ferrari one-two in front of Fisichella, Hakkinen, Verstappen and Trulli. Coulthard finished just out of the points in seventh position. M. Schumacher broke the curse that made the pole position holder not win the race by bringing home 10 points for himself and for the Ferrari team, that also benefited from Barrichello's six points. Today's result, halfway through the season, puts M. Schumacher well in the lead of the Drivers' Championship with a 22 seconds advantage on Coulthard and Ferrari in the lead of the Constructors' Championship with 18 points on McLaren. The Woking team could have hoped for a better 500th GP. Their main man of this year, Coulthard, had to forgo his second position not because a fault of his own and World Champion Hakkinen never really shone any time during the race. Fisichella finished on the podium in Canada for the third time after a skilful in a row and his result allowed Benetton to overtake Williams in the Constructors Championship. Fisichella so far has won all of Benetton's points this season, so he has managed to give the team third position in the Constructors' Championship single-handedly. Verstappen ran a great race, his Arrows obviously well suited for very wet conditions. Trulli managed to salvage one point for Jordan after Frentzen's problems. Next appointment is in France in two weeks time.

Images from La Gazzetta dello Sport Online and Raisport