For the first time this season, with Schumacher having clinched the driver’s title, team-mate Rubens Barrichello was given the T-car and it proved beneficial 15 minutes before the start of the race.

Barrichello suffered a problem with the Ferrari on his installation lap, and as the mechanics were unable to fix it on the grid, he switched to the spare, the Brazilian engaging in a second installation lap just 14 seconds before the pit lane closed.

The 30-year-old, starting from third on the grid, maintained his position once the five lights disappeared, with only the Arrows of Heinz-Harald Frentzen failing to get away.

The Arrows mechanics eventually managed to get Frentzen going, albeit two laps down once he rejoined the race.

It meant the Jaguar of Pedro de la Rosa, who ran wide at the first bend to avoid a collision, became the first retirement as he pulled off the circuit at the entrance to the Motordrome Complex before even completing the initial lap.

It was clearly not going to be Jaguar’s day for Eddie Irvine then spun at the hairpin bend on lap seven, dropping the Ulsterman to 19th, with only Frentzen behind him.

Schumacher had opened up a near five-second lead on his younger sibling by the end of the seventh lap, with Barrichello just a further second adrift.

Kimi Raikkonen in the McLaren, the second Williams-BMW of Juan Pablo Montoya and Jarno Trulli in the Jordan completed the top six, with David Coulthard running seventh – but 20 seconds down.