Mika's comment at the arrival to Germany: "The Championship is getting really exciting now and with seven races to go anything can happen. I like Hockenheim as its a challenging circuit and the atmosphere when you enter the Stadium section where thousands of spectators are gathered is amazing ? you can really hear the noise. I have had pole position in Germany for the past two years and will be keen to make it three in a row".

The Qualifying Session: Only seconds after the qualifying session's start 19 cars immediately went out on the track. Rubens Barrichello spund off the track during the warm up lap, Schumacher gained the first pole position, then beaten by Häkkinen with just -0,001 sec, and then Mika was beaten by Coulthard right after. After 23 minutes Fisichella gained an amazing second place, and heavy rain kept most of the drivers off the track. During the last minutes before the session stopped all the drivers went out, and Barrichello improved a little, winning grid place 17, finally for the first time actually making it on the grid list for tomorrow's race. Schumi improved but won only grid 2. Coulthard managed to hold on to his pole position, Häkkinen didn't improve and had to settle with his fourth place, The other Finnish pilot Mika Salo starts from grid 15 and Barrichello from grid 18.

Mika's comment after the qualifying seesion: "A disappointing outcome considering the improvements we had found to the set-up during practice. In conditions like we experienced today its important that you get your lap at exactly the right moment. Also I was maybe a little bit too cautious, as I didn't want to risk going off. At the end of the day with two cars in the top four we can be happy about the team's performance".

The race: Mika Häkkinen had an incredible start! He went immediately in front of Fisichella to cut him off, and at the same time he saw his chance to go in front of his Team Mate and his worse rival before they reached the first corner, and just in seconds Mika managed to pass the three cars in front of him, and with no complications take the lead! Naturally Fisichella was very eager to keep his third position, and Schumacher was probably in a bit of a shock to see the Flying Finn pass him so fast, they were both fighting for the third spot, and the impact was inevitable. When Schumi tried to cut off Fisichella the same way that Häkkinen had done it just seconds before, Fisichella didn't back off when Schumi slowed down, they were bound to smash and both drivers had to retire. Schumi jumped out of his car in a rage that wasn't appropiate, since - in my opinion - the accident was mostly Schumi's own fault. Barrichello, however, had some amazing first six laps as he found himself as number five by then. Many laps went by with no further action, and Mika had a good lead to Barrichello (almost half a minute) when suddenly some crazy (probably Ferrari) fan wandered about on the track and the safty car was needed. Lucky for Barrichello, who now had the chance to catch up with the McLaren cars again. Mika went to the pit just before the safty car came on, so he didn't get any problems with his position, but when his Team Mate, Coulthard, went in for his pit stop, he returned to the track as number seven, and wasn't able to pass anyone because of the rules due to the safty car. Alesi and Diniz hit each other later on and the safty car had to returned once again. Then it started to rain, and Heidfeld was the first car to go to the pit to change tyres. Villeneuve spund off the track (while the picture was gone), proving to everyone how slippery the track was getting, and soon after this both McLaren cars went to the pit to change their tyres, first Mika, then David. Gene had to retired because of engine problems, and Ralf Schumacher went back into the pit to get something fixed. Mika passed Frentzen easily but Frentzen made a driving mistake and cut off one corner by driving through the grass area and managed that way to get back in front of Häkkinen - Mika passed him again, though, but obviously lost some valuable seconds. Frentzen had to retire shortly after. Coulthard managed to pass Mika Salo in the end and finished the race as 3rd. Ferrari decided NOT to change Barrichello's tyres, since he had over ten seconds lead to Mika after both the McLaren cars changed their tyres, and with only ten laps to go he was sure of winning the race if he could manage to stay on the track. So the Brazilian won his very first Grand Prix here in Hockenheim today, and he was so happy, it was hard not to enjoy his big moment, though Mika Häkkinen SHOULD have won...

Mika's comment after the race: "I made one of the best starts of my career to go from fourth to leading into the first corner. I felt in control during the opening stages of the race even though David was right behind me. When the safety car came out I went in for my pitstop and when the rain started to fall really heavily on lap 34 I pitted for wets. I might have won the race if I had remained on slicks. However the risk of spinning off was too big as it was very slippery, especially in the Stadium section and the car was not easy to drive. I had to be careful with the wets in the fast dry sections not to ruin them and make them useless for the wet parts".

Last year: Häkkinen won pole position and was leading well. He was 25 seconds in front of Salo when he went to his first pit stop in lap 24, but the refuelling took almost half a minute and after two laps he retired because of tyre problems. Coulthard hit Salo's Ferrari and broke his front so after an extra pit stop he finished 5th