From the start he blasted away into the lead, leaving the opposition and his team mate Rubens Barrichello trailing in his wake. The expected challenge from Kimi Raikkonen who had shadowed Schumacher throughout qualifying failed to materialise, a hesitant getaway from the lights saw Barrichello outdrag him down the hill, and a further error saw him pushed down to fourth as Montoya passed him at Pouhon.

With Schumacher's decision to opt for softer compound tyres than his team mate paying off, Barrichello dropped away at a rate of around one second a lap. Behind the Ferraris Raikkonen pressurised Montoya for third. After the first round of pitstops Raikkonen's McLaren team mate David Coulthard got in front and pushed the Colombian all the way to the flag, but was unable to find a way past and had to settle for fourth.

Ralf Schumacher came home fifth, a bad start and an off track excursion left him to come home nearly a minute behind the winner. A delighted Eddie Irvine brought the 
Jaguar home sixth to claim the final point, benifiting from the late retirement of Jarno Trulli's Renault from fifth place.

The only driver to challenge Schumacher was Kimi Raikkonen, who after being right on the pace throughout free practice, initially topped the timesheets after his first run with a 1m44.7s lap. However Schumacher, on his first run dipped under the 1m44s barrier, the only driver to do so all session, and on his second, lowered it further with a 1m43.726s lap which was good enough for pole.

Kimi Raikkonen chipped away at Schumacher's times all session but eventually had to settle for the outside slot on the front row with a 1m44.1s time. Rubens Barrichello was next up in third, ahead of the Williams-BMW drivers, Ralf Schumacher edging out Juan Pablo Montoya.

Further back Eddie Irvine and Mika Salo but in respectable times to line up 8th and 9th for the Jaguar and Toyota teams, while the Saubers were suprisingly off the pace, lining up together on the penultimate row of the grid.

With no sign of the Arrows team again, Mark Webber qualified in 19th place, while Anthony Davidson made the cut again in his second race for Minardi.