Background The Grand Prix was contested by eleven teams, each of two drivers. The teams, also known as
constructors, were
McLaren,
Ferrari,
Williams,
Jordan,
Benetton,
Sauber,
Arrows,
Stewart,
Prost,
Minardi and
BAR. Going into the race, Ferrari driver
Michael Schumacher led the
Drivers' Championship with 16 points, ahead of
Eddie Irvine on 12 points and
Mika Häkkinen on 10 points.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen was fourth with 10 points while
Ralf Schumacher was fifth on 10 points. In the
Constructors' Championship Ferrari were leading with 28 points, McLaren and Jordan were second and third with 16 and 13 points respectively, while Williams with 7 and Stewart with 6 points contended for fourth place. Ferrari had so far dominated the championship, winning two out of the three previous races, with Häkkinen winning the
Brazilian Grand Prix. Championship contenders Frentzen and
David Coulthard had each gained one second-place finish, and Ralf Schumacher and
Rubens Barrichello had achieved third place podium finishes. Following the
San Marino Grand Prix on 2 May, several teams conducted testing sessions at circuits around the world. Ferrari and Minardi headed for
Fiorano where testing for the set-up around the Monaco circuit took place. McLaren and Prost tested at the
Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours running over the course of three days, while Prost elected to test for one day. Jordan tested at the
Lurcy-Lévis test track with driver
Andrew Gilbert-Scott performing aerodynamic mapping runs.
Practice and qualifying Four practice sessions were held before the race; two one-hour sessions on Thursday and two 45 minutes sessions on Saturday. The Friday sessions were held in dry and cloudy conditions. Irvine was the fastest driver in the first session, with a time of 1:18.910 that was less than six-tenths of a second faster than Michael Schumacher. Jordan driver
Damon Hill was less than two-tenths of a second off Michael Schumacher's pace, with Barrichello,
Alessandro Zanardi and
Jean Alesi rounding out the top six. In the second practice session, Michael Schumacher was fastest with a time of 1:22.718, ahead of Häkkinen,
Olivier Panis, Irvine,
Giancarlo Fisichella and Coulthard. Saturday's afternoon qualifying session lasted for an hour. During this session, the
107% rule was in effect, which necessitated each driver set a time within 107% of the quickest lap to qualify for the race. Each driver was limited to twelve laps. The drivers took to the track at 09:30 (
GMT +1) for a 30-minute warm-up session. Both Ferraris gained a position at the start, with
Michael Schumacher taking the lead from
Mika Häkkinen,
Eddie Irvine and
David Coulthard. The order remained this way until lap 35 when Coulthard's car began to slow, eventually causing him to retire. Further bad luck befell
McLaren a few laps later when Häkkinen went straight on at Mirabeau from oil left after
Toranosuke Takagi's blown engine.
Eddie Irvine moved into 2nd place and stayed there. On the podium, the
Republic of Ireland's flag was flown for Irvine.
Post-race The race result left Michael Schumacher extending his lead in the Drivers' Championship with 26 points. Irvine's second place ensured that he maintained second position in the Championship with 18 points, four points ahead of Häkkinen and five ahead of Frentzen. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari extended their lead to 44 points, McLaren maintained second with 20 points, with Jordan maintaining third with 16 points, with 12 races of the season remaining. == Classification ==