[10] Several teams tested their cars, setups and components on European racing tracks for the San Marino Grand Prix.

[11] Arrows, Benetton, British American Racing (BAR), Jaguar, Jordan, McLaren, Prost and Williams tested at the Silverstone Circuit in England in mixed weather conditions from 28 to 30 March 2000.

McLaren, meanwhile, scored no points due to their unreliable car, and their driver David Coulthard was disqualified from second place in Brazil for a technical infringement.

[22] Coulthard felt confident in catching Ferrari and wanted to demonstrate McLaren had the fastest car, saying, "They have not won the championship yet and we are not going to give it to them.

[25] Ferrari used lightweight brake discs just for Saturday morning practice sessions, while Michael Schumacher drove with a new engine for qualifying only and a new rear wing specification.

[25][26] Sauber changed its rear wing specification following car component issues that forced the team to withdraw from the previous Brazilian Grand Prix.

[28] Conditions were damp and overcast at the start of the first practice due to overnight rain, but the track dried and the skies cleared, allowing lap times to gradually improve.

[29] Several drivers reported car problems to their teams and some competitors went off the track during the session,[31] prompting the waving of yellow flags.

The top ten included Coulthard, Jordan's Frenzen and Jarno Trulli, Häkkinen, Jaguar's Johnny Herbert, Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher, and De La Rosa.

[39][41] Marc Gené heavily damaged the front of his Minardi car against the tyre wall at Piratella corner after running wide with ten minutes left.

[37] Villeneuve changed to a new set of tyres but drove too fast and spun into the Aqua Minerale corner gravel trap, ending his session early.

[45][46] Häkkinen was slower than provisional pole sitter Michael Schumacher in the first two sectors on his fastest lap set late in qualifying,[34][46] and made driving errors exiting both the Variante Alta corner and the final chicane.

[44][47][48] Frentzen took sixth,[26][49] followed by Irvine in seventh, who on the soft compound tyres made two driver errors and slowed for yellow flags.

[39][50] Villeneuve took ninth on soft compound tyres after race engineer Jock Clear improved his car's balance during qualifying, after losing four tenths of a second owing to yellow flags.

[3][50] Diniz, tenth, raced with greater car traction and reached sixth before other drivers lapped faster late in the session.

BAR's Ricardo Zonta had a new engine in his car due to motion valve issues and lacked time to find a fast way around the circuit en route to 14th.

[3][34] Herbert in 17th could not extract more performance from the medium compound tyres owing to degradation, and his exhaust was broken, draining power from the engine.

[28][34][55] As teams tested their cars and drivers reported any difficulties with them prior to the race,[56] around one-third of participants used medium compound tyres.

[55] Häkkinen set the fastest lap at 1:27.418 late in the session,[57] ahead of teammate Coulthard, the Ferrari duo of Michael Schumacher and Barrichello, the Jordan pair of Frentzen and Trulli, Fisichella, Gené, Irvine and Alesi.

[61][69] On lap 21, Irvine accidentally pressed the speed limiter button and suddenly slowed out of Tosa turn while attempting to cure an engine misfire caused by an electrical fault, falling behind Ralf Schumacher and Salo as they crested a hill.

[65] Heidfeld experienced a drop in hydraulic pressure, which became so low that his car stopped running, forcing him to retire from the race at the track's side on that lap.

[3][63] Alesi completed a full lap at a reduced speed due to a hydraulic pressure system fault before retiring in the pit lane.

[61][65] Häkkinen ran over metal debris on the circuit, damaging the air splitter under the car and making the front of the McLaren more difficult to drive due to reduced downforce.

Villeneuve came fifth, holding off Salo, who scored his and Sauber's first championship point of the season in sixth despite losing time to the former when he was lapped by Michael Schumacher and Häkkinen.

[74] The one-stopping Herbert and Fisichella as well as Zonta (whose exhaust cracked), Mazzacane, Verstappen and Trulli (despite his retirement) were the final classified finishers.

[80] Ferrari president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo praised Michael Schumacher's work and commended Brawn for devising the race-winning strategy,[74][81] "It was very tough and (Mika) Hakkinen drove very well but I am very happy with this win.

[81] Ferrari team principal Jean Todt stated, "Today's race has shown it will be a long hard road but that is an incentive to work even harder.

"[81] McLaren team principal Ron Dennis stated that second and third place were not the anticipated results, but that they still had the capacity to win races in the remaining rounds and were looking forward to the following British Grand Prix.

[83] Haug called it "a very mature performance by the whole team", adding, "The harder times of having cars stranded with engine failures are considered as history.

"[83] Villeneuve commended his team's work during his first pit stop, which helped him move ahead of Ralf Schumacher and that "the race showed that we can be competitive and maybe be the best of the rest after Ferrari and McLaren.