French GP - Magny Cours - 2 July 2000

As the lights changed to signal the start of a very hot French GP (39 degrees C track temperature), M. Schumacher leapt ahead followed by Barrichello, who gained a position on second-on-the-grid Coulthard. The two McLaren took third and fourth place in front of Villeneuve and Frentzen. M. Schumacher lapped faster than his team mate and began building a gap between himself and Barrichello, who was keeping the two McLaren and the rest of the pack behind. By lap 7 M. Schumacher had an advantage of 3.6 seconds over the rest of the pack. Nothing happened until lap 13 when Heidfield went too deep trying to overtake Fisichella, touched his team mate Alesi and sent him into a spin. Alesi lost two positions in favour of Fisichella and Heidfield. On lap 16 Zonta, who was running 17th, lost control of his car, hit the tyre barrier sideways and retired. On lap 18 Alesi went for his first pit stop (11.7 seconds). On the following lap Heidfield pitted and stalled the engine in the garage. Coulthard found an opening, attacked Barrichello, the Brazilian closed the door on him, the Scot gave way and came back on the inside, overtaking the Ferrari for second place. On lap 23 Häkkinen came in for his first pit stop (7.5 seconds). Most other drivers had their first pit stop around this time, including M. Schumacher on lap 24. M. Schumacher's pit stop lasted 8.8 seconds, putting Coulthard in the lead. On the following lap Coulthard had his pit stop (7.3 seconds) at the same time as Barrichello (6.6 seconds). Coulthard managed to rejoin in front of team mate Häkkinen, but Barrichello had to go behind the second McLaren. Trulli came too close to team mate Frentzen while overtaking him and touched his wheel, without consequences. On lap 25 Verstappen stopped by the side and retired. After the first set of stops M. Schumacher was back in the lead in front of Coulthard, Häkkinen, Barrichello, Villeneuve and Trulli. Coulthard, who had to win the race to keep the Championship open, set off in chase of M. Schumacher and pushed hard, setting the new fastest lap. Mazzacane lost control of his car and flew into the tyre barrier, hitting hit with the back of his car, retiring. On lap 33 Coulthard tried to attack M. Schumacher on the outside for the lead at the hairpin but the German fought back, held the inside racing line and forced the Scot to brake. On lap 36 Wurz lost control of his car while trying to overtake Alesi, damaged his nosecone and retired. With Coulthard on M. Schumacher's tail and Häkkinen following closely, Barrichello started pushing to catch up with them. On lap 40 Coulthard managed to get the inside line at the hairpin and undertook M. Schumacher for the lead, with the wheels touching. Häkkinen did not manage to take advantage of the fight for the lead and did not overtake the Ferrari in his team mate's line. On lap 42 Fisichella hit the kerb and bounched across the track, going on the grass on the other side. The Italian kept the car going and rejoined the race, retaining his eighth position. The second set of pit stop started and both Häkkinen and M. Schumacher went in. M. Schumacher (7.3 seconds) came out before Häkkinen (8.8 seconds). Coulthard pushed as much as he could to build up an advantage before having to stop. On the following lap Barrichello had his pit stop, but problems with his front right tyre meant a 16.8 seconds stop for him. On lap 46 Coulthard finally went for his second pit stop with 23.3 seconds lead. His stop was 7.9 seconds and retained the lead in front of M. Schumacher. On lap 51 Alesi had a come together with Gené's Minardi at the hairpin and went into his second spin of the day. On the following lap R. Schumacher sliced to the inside of Trulli and took sixth position from him. With 17 laps to go Häkkinen was on M. Schumacher's tail. The Finn had to finish ahead of the German to have a chance to fight for the Championship. With 15 laps to go M. Schumacher made a mistake, locked his rear wheels and let Häkkinen through at the hairpin. The German slowed out with smoke pouring off his engine, realised he could not make it back to the pits and decided to park his car out of the way on the grass. With six laps to go Button was attacking Frentzen for seventh place, in one of his best races. With three laps to go Irvine had to go into the pits for the fourth time with problems. The positions stayed unchanged until the end. Coulthard passed the chequered flag first, followed by Häkkinen, Barrichello, Villeneuve, R. Schumacher and Trulli. The French GP gave Coulthard and McLaren just the result they were looking for to keep both Drivers and the Constructors Championships open. Coulthard showed that he means business this season and McLaren might decide to impose team orders on him and Häkkinen to make sure that the two drivers don't fight each other. Ferrari managed to control the damage with Barrichello's third place, but they were certainly hoping for a different result. BAR had something to be happy about with Villeneuve's fourth place, despite Zonta's accident and both Williams and Jordan increased their points in the Constructors Championship despite Benetton's poor show. Next appointment is in Austria in two weeks time.

Images from La Gazzetta dello Sport Online and Raisport