At the start of lap two, Heidfeld ran wide at the first corner and was overtaken by the Williams drivers, resuming fifth, leading the two McLarens and now the race began to settle down.

But at the front, the two Ferraris were beginning to pull away from the Williamses. Behind Heidfeld came Coulthard but teammate Raikkonen pulled off on lap six when his engine lost revs. By lap 13, Barrichello had a lead of 2.0s over Michael, the pair 19s ahead of Ralf Schumacher who was 9.3s ahead of teammate Montoya. Then came a gap of 8.5s back to Heidfeld who had pulled away from Coulthard, who in turn had pulled away from Salo, Trulli and Villeneuve, although the Canadian was charging through the field. Villeneuve overtook Trulli a lap later and got by Salo on lap 19.

On lap 23, Villeneuve was given a drive-through penalty for causing the incident with Frentzen, but at the same time, teammate Panis suffered an engine failure on the pit straight, leaving the car stationary in the middle of the track, so the safety car was deployed. During this time, both Ferraris came in on lap 24, Michael having to wait while Barrichello’s leading car was worked on. They don’t lose too much time. Villeneuve served his drive-through at this time.

On lap 27, the safety car came in and as racing resumed, Heidfeld and Coulthard were side by side going up the hill to the second corner. Yoong locked up his brakes ahead of Heidfeld which caused the Sauber driver to brake extra hard, but with the brakes and tyres still cold from the safety car period, the car got away from him and he spun across the track and into the corner, just missing Montoya who had turned into the corner but slamming into Sato outside him.

Both cars were badly damaged and although Heidfeld was carried from his car, he suffered only bruising as did Sato who was trapped in his car by part of the Sauber and was eventually flown to Graz hospital where he remained overnight. During another nine laps behind the safety car, everyone pitted apart from the two Williams.

When racing resumed on lap 36, Barrichello was leading from Ralf, then Michael and Montoya. Coulthard was next from Fisichella, just ahead of Villeneuve but the BAR driver overtook on the next lap, immediately caught Coulthard and overtook him as well.

At the front, Barrichello was easing away from Ralf when the Williams stopped on lap 47 in 8.8s. Four laps later, Montoya also stopped, in 7.2s and emerged just 1.2s ahead of teammate Ralf. Two laps later, Villeneuve pitted from third place, resuming on the tail end of a tussle involving Fisichella, Coulthard and Button.

The Ferraris also made another pit stop, Barrichello on lap 61 in 6.2s and Michael on lap 62 in 6.4s, the pair resuming 4.1s apart and still first and second. During the final laps, Michael steadily cut Barrichello’s lead from 3.8s to 1.0s on the last lap, the Brazilian allowing his teammate to take the chequered flag under team orders.