Mika's comment at the arrival to Belgium: "There is no doubt that I'm looking forward to this race. It's nice to be leading the Championship but I'm focusing on this weekend's Grand Prix. I spent two days last week testing at Silverstone, where we had hoped it would rain, so we could get some wet weather running in before Spa. Unfortunately for once it stayed sunny! We are in good shape and the Belgian Grand Prix always provides value for money for the spectators as there are plenty of overtaking opportunities ? hopefully I won't need them".

The qualifying session started with Mazzacane and Mika Häkkinen, Mika taking the pole with -4,440 sec. Schumacher's first try didn't succeed in beating Mika's pole and David Coulthard had to pass two slower cars during his fast lap, so he too failed, making lap time almost one second slower than his Team Mate's, taking a temporarily 6th place. Trulli, a pleasent surprise, was the first driver to take Mika's pole position with -0,082 sec. over 40 minutes after the session's start, but when Mika and Schumi returned to the track at the same time soon after, Mika regained his pole with a great -0,340 sec. despite of a bad beginning, while Schumi had to settle with a third place. Frentzen beat both Trulli and Schumi as he made a driving mistake and accidently cut off a big corner. One minute later his time was removed, though. With 14 minutes left of the session, Schumi gave it a third try, improving his whole lap time up until the last few corners where he was too slow and only managed to keep his third position. Mika's third try a little later finished with an astonishing -0,612 sec. improvement, now leaving Schumi a whole second behind!! English Jensen Button improved his lap time and pushed Schumi one place back, taking the third grid position. Coulthard soon after took fourth place, but Barrichello couldn't improve his time and finally had to settle with 10th place. 20 cars came on the track in the very end but due to yellow flags after one of the Prost Team's cars stopped in the middle of the track, the session's last minute ran out without letting anyone finish their fast lap. Mika was improving his own time when this happened, but who cares, he won, that's all that matters, eh? So he'll be starting tomorrow with Trulli next to him and Jensen Button behind him! Then Schumi on fourth place, Coulthard on fifth, Ralf Schumacher on sixth. Barrichello from Grid place 10...

Mika's comment after the qualifying session: "Obviously I'm pleased to take my second consecutive Belgian Grand Prix pole position. We found a good set-up to the car and the team did a great job. We improved the car throughout the qualifying and I'm optimistic for tomorrow's race".

The race: Finally, when you think you've seen the best of Mika Häkkinen, he proves to everybody that we've seen nothing yet. Today he was one of a kind! The race began on a wet track and behind the safety car, which only stayed on the track for one lap, though. Mika quickly began running away and by lap five he had already established a 10-second lead. David also did a good job, taking fourth position also in lap five. The track dried quickly so Mika went to the pit to change tyres two laps later, his Team Mate did the same in the following lap. In lap 13 Mika spund off the track at Stavelot which allowed Schumacher to take the lead from the Finn for the first time. Fortunately Mika controlled the spin, as much as it's physically possible, and was able to continue the race. He pitted again in lap 27 and maintained his second place behind Schumacher. David was stuck behind Frentzen'z yellow butt for a while, and when he came into the pit for the second time, it was at the same time with Frentzen, but McLaren did a hell of a job and David was able to leave the pit before Frentzen. Mika was racing fast, closing in on Schumacher very quickly and in lap 40 he challenged his worst rival for the first time. Schumacher cut him off, though, keeping his leading position, and their cars nearly touched. However, one lap later Mika tried again when they came up to pass a backmarker. Schumacher decided to pass the slow car from the outside while Hakkinen saw the opportunity to take the inside. The two pilots were therefor passing on each side, and as Schumi later admitted: He had never believed that Mika would be able to pass him in that situation since the track usually only has space for two cars side by side, but the passing went without any problems, and Mika was the fastest, and took the lead at Les Combes. Three laps later he won the race, and I'm sure that there were many Schumi fans pulling out their hair in frustration. Mika pulled off a stunt that was later described as one of the best overtaking manoeuvres ever seen in Formula One. This was nothing less than... *shaking head in disbelief* I can't put words on it. Mika proved to everybody once again WHY he's the defending double World Champion... And I'm sure we'll see a Hat Trick this year!!! *crossing fingers*

Mika's comment after the race: "This was an enjoyable race and I'm really happy to leave Belgium with 10 points. I lost the lead to Schumacher when I spun at Stavelot. I don't really know what happened but the kerbs were very slippery. After my second pit stop I was closing on Schumacher and tried to get past him at the end of the straight but that didn't work. However I was much quicker coming out of La Source. I would probably have been close enough coming up the hill to overtake him anyway but because of the backmarker I got an additional tow and was able to go past and pull away".

"His overtaking manoeuvre I'm sure will go down as one of the greatest in Formula One History!" - Ron Dennis

Last year: Mika took pole position,  but was AGAIN hit by Coulthard and with that stunt David took the lead from Mika. Mika had the fastest lap of the race, but finished second anyway. Coulthard won.