[7] Mika Häkkinen started on pole position in a McLaren, with teammate David Coulthard alongside him, but both retired with pneumatic valve failures.

[8] Three drivers made their Grand Prix debut: future world champion Jenson Button in a BMW-Williams, Nick Heidfeld in a Prost and Gastón Mazzacane in a Minardi.

[13] The last Drivers' Champion for Ferrari, Jody Scheckter, who did so in the 1979 season, also tipped Schumacher to win the Championship.

[16][17] At the Minardi team, Gastón Mazzacane replaced Luca Badoer, who opted to continue as Ferrari test driver, a role he began in 1997.

[21] In the first practice session, held on a slippery track surface, Häkkinen set the fastest lap of 1 minute and 32.768 seconds, followed by Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, David Coulthard, Jacques Villeneuve, Ralf Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jos Verstappen, Eddie Irvine and Alexander Wurz.

[22] During the session, Ricardo Zonta and Heidfeld spun into a gravel trap beside the circuit, Johnny Herbert's car had a possible engine failure that cut out its ignition system,[22] and Michael Schumacher's driving was curtailed due to the on-board television camera mounted atop of his Ferrari melting a wiring loom.

[25] On his fourth lap, Button crashed into the turn ten right-hand side barrier at 160 mph (260 km/h) after clipping a kerb,[27] removing the rear wheels from his Williams and heavily damaging its bodywork.

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.

[21] Mika Häkkinen took pole position by three-tenths from teammate David Coulthard, after the pair locked out a McLaren front row to start the season.

Michael Schumacher was disappointed with third after a spin by Coulthard had caused a red flag forcing him to abandon his final attempt.

Schumacher's new Ferrari teammate, Rubens Barrichello, qualified fourth, with the Jordans of Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli behind him on the third row.

Eddie Irvine qualified seventh for Jaguar, with Jacques Villeneuve, Giancarlo Fisichella and Mika Salo completing the top ten.

Ralf Schumacher was eleventh for the Williams-BMW, with rookie teammate Jenson Button qualifying 21st for his first race, setting a lap time 1.6 seconds slower.

[29] In Sunday morning's half an hour warm-up session, Barrichello paced the field with a time of 1 minute and 31.225 seconds.

Jean Alesi, Michael Schumacher, de la Rosa and Salo completed the top ten going into the race.

On lap 7, the front suspension on the Arrows car of Pedro de la Rosa failed, sending him into a tyre barrier.

[33][35] Barrichello was the next driver of the front running cars to pit on lap 33, but the Ferrari team switched him to a two stop strategy so that he could move ahead of Frentzen.

[35] The retirements of the McLaren and Jordan team cars elevated Ralf Schumacher, Button's Williams teammate, into third position.