McLaren one-two as Hakkinen wins in Spain

The German's overall points lead has been reduced to to six points. A reliable run from the silver cars saw David Coulthard finish without incident in second.

A stunning start for both the McLarens on the clean side of the track saw Hakkinen and Coulthard slot into the top two spots, while the Ferraris struggled.

Irvine got bottled up behind Coulthard, while Schumacher was caught in the fall-out.

All this enabled Jacques Villeneuve to leap from sixth to third, which he held throughout the early stages, from Schumacher who, unsurprisingly, had managed to get past Irvine.

Thereafter, the Irishman had a quiet race to take fourth after Villeneuve's demise, lacking the speed to tackle Schumacher, but quick enough to see off Ralf Schumacher, in his Winfield Williams.

Villeneuve was easily able to hold off Michael Schumacher for the first 20 laps of the race, but by the time the first stoppers were coming in, the Canadian appeared to be struggling to slow the BAR down into the slow corners.

Even so, the Ferrari was seeming to have severe understeer problems, to the extent where a new nose cone with a more severe front wing angle was being prepared in the pits for Schumacher.

After 14 laps, Hakkinen was setting a string of laps in the 1.25.5 bracket with metronomic rhythm, stretching his lead over Coulthard and Villeneuve all the while.

Hakkinen's lead was such that he was able to stop, for 6.8 seconds, and return having only lost one place, to his team mate David Coulthard.

Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve dived into the pits in tandem, and Schumacher was able to return in sixth, which became fifth when Heinz
Harald Frentzen pitted.

Villeneuve dropped to eighth after a longer than usual stop. However, if Villeneuve thought he had problems in the first stop, it was nothing to his second. The Canadian's pit crew was seen frantically trying to remove part of the rear wing which had possibly come loose.

He had already been stationary for half a minute when he tried to pull away and seemed to stall. All drive was gone from the BAR, and Villeneuve went no further in the Spanish Grand Prix.

'The car was getting a bit loose, and sliding around in the corners,' he said later as to why the rear wing change was made. 'When we pulled off, first gear broke,' he added, simply.

Michael Schumacher began one of the charges of which he has become famous after his pit stop.

After dispensing with some traffic in fairly short order, the German started to lap a second a lap faster than both the McLarens ahead of him.

Coulthard was able to make some impression on the traffic in a way he was seemingly unable to do in Imola earlier in the year.

Even so, Schumacher managed to cut some nine seconds from Hakkinen's lead over the course of as many laps.

The Ferrari appeared to be driving like a completely different car on his second set of tyres, and was starting to pull up to the back of Coulthard, who was trying his hardest, on the edge while passing traffic.

Schumacher pitted for the second and final time on lap 42, and McLaren decided to bring Hakkinen in two laps later. Coulthard then led, and pitted on lap 45, making it a straight fight to the flag for the top three.

Coulthard squeezed out ahead of Schumacher, and suffered an agonizing lap while he tried desperately to get some heat into his tyres before.

The Scot was able to hold his place, and the boot was then on the other foot as Schumacher seemed to have hurt his tyres and dropped back a little over two seconds after a lap or so.

Hakkinen passed Hill on lap 57 and set about lining up Barrichello. The
McLarens could not afford to relax for a second, as Michael Schumacher was
refusing to give an inch in his attempt to catch Coulthard.

A lap later he passed Barrichello into the first corner, but seemed to be having more trouble with Trulli.

With six laps remaining, he was in clear air, and Coulthard had the four cars (including Takagi two laps down) to pass.

Takagi refused to move for Michael Schumacher, costing the German precious tenths.

Coulthard was given severe problems by former Hill, who refused to concede in his struggle with Barrichello.

Schumacher had a much easier time of it, but crucially, Coulthard was able to pass Barrichello before being put under too much pressure.

As Schumacher lapped Barrichello, Hill followed him through to take seventh from the Brazilian.

Trulli took the final point, after Ralf Schumacher, Eddie Irvine, Michael Schumacher, David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen, winning his second race of the year.

Spanish Grand Prix Result