Before the start Alex Yoong heads for the Minardi pit to take the spare car. He has to start from the pitlane. Also in trouble is Enrique Bernoldi who is left sitting on the pre-grid when the field takes off for the final parade lap. He is pushed into the pits and starts from there.

* Lap 1: At the start Juan-Pablo Montoya makes a slightly faster start than Michael Schumacher. The Ferrari driver moves across to protect the inside line. This allows Ralf Schumacher to close on Montoya but the three men remain in station as they go into the first corner. Rubens Barrichello is fourth with a fast-starting Giancarlo Fisichella getting ahead of Mika Hakkinen. David Coulthard follows in seventh with Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button behind him. In the course of the first lap Barrichello overtook Ralf Schumacher to take third. Further back Kimi Raikkonen makes a good start and jumps from 12th to 10th, while his team mate Nick Heidfeld drops from 10th to 14th after a near-miss with Jacques Villeneuve. Also having a good first lap is Jos Verstappen who goes from 21st on the grid to 17th at the end of the first lap. At the end of the lap Michael Schumacher is 3.6secs in the lead.

* Lap 2: Schumacher increase his lead to 6.3secs as Barrichello tried to pass Montoya. At the end of the lap Rubens dives down the inside of the Colombian at the chicane and gets ahead. At the back Heinz-Harald Frentzen runs into the back of Pedro de la Rosa's Jaguar and removes his front wing.

* Lap 3: At the first corner Montoya retakes second place from Barrichello. Further around the lap Fisichella has a half-spin and drops from fifth place to 12th. Frentzen pits and drops to the back of the field. Michael Schumacher ends the lap with a lead of 8.2secs.

* Lap 4: Schumacher's lead is 8.9secs. Montoya is able to hold back Barrichello and the order begins to settle down. At the back of the field Olivier Panis overtakes Fernando Alonso for 17th.

* Lap 6: Schumacher's lead is up to 10secs while Montoya has pulled out a second over Barrichello. Raikkonen spins out of ninth place and Jean Alesi is not able to avoid him. The two cars hit the barriers at high-speed but both men emerge unscathed. As the other cars try to avoid the flying wreckage Fisichella passes Eddie Irvine for what has become ninth position.

* Lap 11: Fisichella passes Button to move to eighth place.

* Lap 14: Frentzen passes Yoong to take 19th place.

* Lap 15: After a period of stability during which the gap between Michael Schumacher and Montoya remains at around 10 seconds, Barrichello heads for the pits for his first pit stop. This indicates that he is on a three-stop strategy. Rubens drops from third place to seventh behind Ralf Schumacher the two McLarens and Fisichella. At the end of the lap Barrichello passes Fisichella at the chicane.

* Lap 16: Sixth-placed Trulli and eighth-placed Fisichella both pit. They drop back to 12th and 13th places. Also pitting is Panis who drops from 16th to 18th.

* Lap 17: Verstappen pits, dropping from 14th to 17th.

* Lap 18: Michael Schumacher comes in for his first pit stop and drops behind Montoya, Ralf Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen. He tries to pass the McLaren but cannot get ahead. At the tail of the field Yoong stops for the first time.

* Lap 19: The pit stops continue with ninth-placed Jacques Villeneuve and 10th-placed Heidfeld. Also pitting is Enrique Bernoldi who drops from 16th to 19th.

* Lap 20: Schumacher remains stuck behind Hakkinen - the two crossing the line side-by-side. Montoya charges in an effort to close the gap before his first pit stop. Seventh-placed Button stops and rejoins in 11th.

* Lap 21: Montoya pits. This puts Ralf Schumacher into the lead while Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher continue their battle. There are more stops in the midfield with Alonso and Enge stopping. Frentzen overtakes Verstappen to take 16th place. Enrique Bernoldi stops for a 10-second stop-go penalty for gaining a time advantage by going through a chicane. The Arrows team had previously been warned by e-mail about him jumping the chicane.

* Lap 22: Frentzen stops and falls back to 17th behind Alonso, Enge and Panis.

* Lap 23: Ralf Schumacher stops and Hakkinen goes into the lead. Ralf rejoins in fifth place. Coulthard also stops and falls from fourth to sixth. Eddie Irvine, who has climbed to seventh stops but the refuelling machine malfunctions and he rejoins without fuel.

* Lap 24: Hakkinen pits and so Michael Schumacher Is back in the lead. His lead over Montoya is down to 5.3secs. Irvine stops again but the refuelling machine is still not working and he retires. Further back Villeneuve passes Button for 11th place.

* Lap 26: Seventh-placed de la Rosa pits and he falls back behind a lively battle between Trulli, Fisichella, Villeneuve, Button and Heidfeld. Ralf Schumacher is given a 10-second stop-go penalty for gaining a time advantage by going through a chicane. The Williams team had previously been warned by e-mail about Ralf jumping the chicane.

* Lap 29: Third-placed Barrichello pits for the second time. At the same time Ralf Schumacher comes in for his penalty. As both men leave the pits Barrichello is slow away and Schumacher caught by surprise passes him. He then touches the white line as he is leaving the pits and the FIA Stewards once again investigate. It is decided that he should not be penalised as Barrichello had not been going as fast as Ralf had expected. At the end of the lap Ralf overtakes Rubens for fifth place. At the tail of the field Frentzen passes Panis for 16th place.

* Lap 30: Frentzen passes Verstappen for 15th place.

* Lap 32: Panis stops for a second time but retains 17th place.

* Lap 33: Barrichello passes Ralf Schumacher to take fifth place. Trulli pits again and falls from ninth to 10th place. Heidfeld also stops and holds on to 11th place. Frentzen overtakes Enge for 14th while Verstappen has his second stop but remains 16th.

Lap 34: The gap between Michael Schumacher and Montoya at the front remains six and a half seconds and there is then a big gap back to Hakkinen and Coulthard. Barrichello is fifth with Ralf Schumacher sixth. Fisichella is seventh while eighth-placed Villeneuve pits again and drops behind Button and Fisichella.

* Lap 35: Fisichella stops and so Button moves to seventh place. Further back Enge stops for his second time.

* Lap 36: Michael Schumacher pits again and Montoya takes the lead. Once again Michael rejoins behind Hakkinen. At the tail of the field Enge pits again with a mechanical problem.

* Lap 38: Montoya and Hakkinen both pit and so Schumacher goes back into the lead. Button alos stops and falls from seventh to eighth behind Fisichella again. Frentzen has his second stop and is overtaken by Alonso.

* Lap 39: Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher have their second stops. David drops from second place to fifth and Ralf from fourth to sixth.

* Lap 41: Barrichello comes in for his third stop and falls back behind the tow McLarens again. In the midfield de la Rosa has his second stop and remains 12th. Enge pits from a fourth time.

* Lap 42: Enge retires after one further exploratory lap.

* Lap 45: De la Rosa retires with a fuel pressure problem.

* Lap 47: Fisichella retires with a mechanical problem.

* Lap 48: Hakkinen pulls over and lets Coulthard take third place.

* Lap 49: Villeneuve spins and Heidfeld moves to ninth.

Q: Looking at the race, you leaped into an 11 second lead in the first three or four laps. From then on, it seemed a bit more difficult. Was that you managing the gap or did the car go off a bit?

MS: We had probably the advantage that we were fast in the first couple of laps from our tyres. We then remained very consistent whereas maybe the other guys struggled a little bit in the beginning, but then I started to be consistent and the times started to match. The point was that both times I went out of the pits on my new set of tyres I was always behind Mika, so that I couldn't really use that advantage, I seemed to have initially, for the next two times so I kept the gap to the same margin as before.

Q: Juan Pablo, talk us through that great battle with Rubens on the first couple of laps?

Juan Pablo MONTOYA: I think it was a good race up to the end. As you could see, Rubens was on new tyres, I was on old tyres and the first few laps, as Michael says, there's a huge difference. He got by me into the chicane, but he sacrificed the exit and I had a good run at him into turn one and passed him again. Since then, my tyres began to come back a little bit and I managed to pull away from him and that was it really.

Q: Can you sum up your rookie season for us?

JPM: It's been a good season, I think. I was very unlucky on a number of occasions when I could have had a good result and the car broke down or something happened, and I missed a lot of points. But being my first season, things have been pretty good.

Q: David, third today has captured you second place in the championship. Is that a satisfactory end to what I suppose has been an unsatisfactory championship?

David COULTHARD: Yes, I did everything I could this year and that was it, second place was the best I could do. There was a big gap to where Michael finished. I think I was helped a little bit by Mika at the end there, who, I think, didn't want to have to come and talk to you this afternoon, so I thank him for that. It's nice to finish the season, as Michael said, on the podium. To win would have been fantastic but I've never been that good around Suzuka, so it isn't a bad result.

Q: Did you known in advance that Mika was going to let you through, to thank you, in some way, for the way you helped him in '98 and '99.

DC: No, not at all. He's a very quiet chap, so he doesn't give much away.

Q: Michael, you've really romped away from the championship this year, but how much tougher do you think it's going to be next season?

MS: We will find out. I think it was a tough challenge. We had an easy run the first two races when we were very competitive and dominated but then after that I thought it got very tight and the races we won, we had to fight for quite hard. We were lucky to do the season so early because of some misfortune for David, some mechanical problems he had, and therefore we finished the season early with the championship, but not because we were so dominant, and even now, if you look, it was a fight in the end, we weren't dominant. But the good thing is to keep first position for you in the end, however.

Q: Michael, could you have imagined having such a big lead after the first lap?

Michael SCHUMACHER: Yes, at this stage we weren't sure whether these guys were going on a one stop or two stopper, so seeing the big gap initially, I was wondering if they were on a one stop, but then times stabilized and as I was about ten seconds in front, I managed just to be a little bit faster, open it out to 12s, come back to 10s, so I was pretty sure that at this stage in the game, that it was a two stopper for them, which then surprised me obviously that we were able to go so far ahead.

We had a good weekend altogether. We had a good car, a good package, perfect tyres and everything worked quite well.

Q: In fact you never had as great a lead as you had at the end of the first stint, 11 seconds.

MS: Yes, that was obviously down to unfortunate traffic situation, because every time I came out after my pit stops I was behind Mika actually, which was on old tyres, not so fast compared to what I could have done, and I couldn't get by him. So I had to sacrifice all the time, my good period, spending it in traffic.

Q: We see you half off the circuit at one point. Was that your only moment?

MS: Basically, yes. I went straight on at the chicane once, because I locked up all my tyres, but I made sure I lost time on that lap. Those were the only two situations.

Juan Pablo MONTOYA: Actually, I don't care. I'm second so... Even though I lifted, it was really quick. Then I lost all the time through the first sector, lost over a second in the first sector, and then I pushed again.

Q: Otherwise, you seemed to enjoy yourself out there.

JPM: Everything was having a look at the Ferrari, especially the car that Michael had was way too quick on new tyres, that's where he won the race, I think. When his tyres were old and my tyres were in a good shape, we were the same or quicker than him. I think we're going to have to work really hard on the tyres during the winter to make sure we will be able to run new tyres because it seems that if we don't really scrub the tyres, we're not competitive. I spent yesterday all day scrubbing tyres and that really cost us.

Q: That first lap, when Rubens overtook you on the grass...

JPM: It really surprised me because I pretty much closed him out under braking and suddenly I saw him sliding in, I thought 'leave him enough room' and when I came out of the corner, I had better speed than him, I managed to get a good tow out of him and go back in front of him through the first corner. It was pretty good after that, because I managed to pull out enough lead that when he used the new tyres and everything, we were still ahead of him.

Q: Otherwise was the car OK; you were talking earlier on about the tyres?

JPM: The car was good, but while the tyres come in, we lose so much time, as we saw with Michael. When he was on new tyres and I was on scrubbed tyres, while the tyres take five or six laps to come in, there's just no competition.

Q: David, what about your day. The car was good third...

David COULTHARD: Yeah, no the actually balance of the car has been reasonable all weekend. It's one of the best I've had round here. It's just as a package lacking in all areas to go a bit quicker.

DC: I don't know, maybe he was stuck in fifth gear, I'm not sure. He was pretty much about five seconds ahead for most of the race and it fluctuated a little bit with traffic and pit stops and then all of a sudden, he slowed down a lot towards the end. If it was to give me a podium, then obviously I thank him. I think it was probably to avoid having to come and deal with interviews everything afterwards. He's done a lot this weekend.

Q: Did you miss the chicane as well, was that the only moment you had?

DC: I didn't miss the chicane actually during the race. I locked up a few times going in there and a few times at the hairpin. I had a problem with low speed grip, but I didn't really have any big moments during the race.

Michael SCHUMACHER: I didn't... no, no, there is a difference between domination of a championship, or a domination of all season. A domination, I call, is if I would have done at all 17 races this year what I have done at the first two races, that's domination. That's not the case. Obviously we had two races being dominant, but then after that it was a very tight battle very often. That's the point I was trying to make, that's clear enough to understand.

MS: Obviously in the situation that was Rubens was, I couldn't be any help. First of all, the plan was that he gets by the two Williams and then once he's by them, then obviously I would have let him by and let him do his race. That was the plan. As he couldn't get by, then there's no point in sacrificing my own race and maybe give away first position if whatever happened later in the race, and I think that was quite right.

MS: I expect, obviously, a big battle from both of the teams, and whoever is sitting in the cars. I don't think it is possible to point at one driver and say 'he's the one I'm going to face.' I guess everybody agrees that everybody thought at the beginning of the season it was going to be Mika and then it turned out to be David challenging me. You never know what is going to happen.

DC: I think it's difficult to make a comparison when you have different tyres, so to compare us with the Williams is quite difficult, and clearly they've been strong in other areas, not just the car. Between ourselves and Ferrari, it's unusual because there have been some tracks where we've been very competitive to them and obviously other tracks like here where there has been a big big difference. It's a little difficult to fully understand that but I see no reason why, with the same group of people who were able to do design a car in '98 that was dominant, then there's no reason why it's not possible to come back there again. I just hope it's next year.

Q: Could you make a comment about Jean who is leaving Formula One?

MS: I guess we've said many things this weekend already, but to repeat: obviously most of us are going to be very sad. He's a great racer, he's a friend of mine and particularly it was will be quite sad because I think he still has the speed, and if you look around Formula One there are probably other drivers who should retire earlier than him. But that's the way it goes. On the other hand, I would like to say that you never know. The winter is long, and with Jean... we will find out what happens next year...

JPM: I didn't know him that well but I followed his career when I was watching the races and he's a great driver.

Q: What kind of instructions were you given during the drivers' briefing concerning the use of the white line exiting the pit lane and driving through the chicane?