Michael Schumacher had cast himself as the prophet of doom in the runup to the Spanish Grand Prix, glumly predicting a swift end to Ferrari's brief authority over arch-rivals McLaren in the Formula One championship, and yesterday in Barcelona Schumacher's cataclysmic forecasts came to pass as Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard recorded an emphatic one-two victory at the Circuit de Catalunya.

"This is probably the worst circuit for us in our current situation," Schumacher had moaned on Thursday and while the gap to the McLarens was nowhere near as wide as the German had expected, the result was as bad a body blow as Ferrari had received in some time for it catapults McLaren right back into the title race, leaving them 15 points adrift of Ferrari in the constructors' race.

Hakkinen's win also closes the gap on championship leader Schumacher to just six points. Hakkinen was rarely troubled throughout the 65-lap race, but Coulthard, coming off the back of a disastrous series of races, didn't have it all his own way as third-placed Michael Schumacher threatened to usurp the Scot in the battle for the second tier of the podium.

At Imola, Coulthard lost the race to Schumacher as back markers hampered his progress and allowed the German to close within striking distance, and yesterday the tail enders once again nearly cost the McLaren driver dear. Sandwiched first between Johnny Herbert and Giancarlo Fisichella and later, more critically, behind Damon Hill as the Jordan driver battled for seventh with Rubens Barrichello, Coulthard allowed Schumacher to carve almost four seconds out of the Scot's lead as the final laps approached.

All the ghosts Coulthard was in the process of exorcising were threatening to haunt him with renewed vigour, but suddenly Hill moved aside and Coulthard again pulled away. But while he finished four seconds ahead of Schumacher, McLaren boss Ron Dennis, repeating a theme he had played with gusto in the wake of the San Marino Grand Prix, railed against the use of blue flags at the circuit.

"This is a professional sport and sometimes we're in the hands of amateurs," he thundered. "There were two guys with blue flags just chatting as David was coming through."

The driver was more philosophical, despite furiously waving his fist at Hill while being held back. "There really is a huge problem," he said afterwards.

"But I was stuck behind Damon for almost a lap and I did get a bit frustrated, thinking he should know better, but then he moved over."

Hakkinen though cruised to a facile win after both Ferraris made poor starts. Eddie Irvine, who had claimed second spot on the grid and had threatened to "nail him (Hakkinen) in the first corner", failed to match the flying start of both McLaren drivers and succeeded only in blocking his team leader and allowing Jacques Villeneuve to streak into third outside the stranded Ferraris. "I got off the line well, but then I had too much wheelspin," admitted Irvine, who finished fourth. "Coulthard was very close and braked earlier than I expected, so I had to break too which allowed Villeneuve to come past."

With Schumacher and Irvine bottled up by the slower BAR, both McLarens opened a convincing gap before Schumacher eventually wrested third place from Villeneuve with a quicker stop as both pitted simultaneously.

Schumacher began to claw his way up to Coulthard as the Scot's car seemed to get away from him. "I made a change to the tyre pressures when I came in for my second set of tyres and in the conditions it was the wrong thing to do," admitted Coulthard. "I had a lot of understeer then and encountered some traffic and that allowed Michael to close the gap."

With just one second separating the German from Coulthard, Ferrari opted to bring Schumacher in, in the hope that the McLaren would stay on track and lose more time, but McLaren responded immediately and within two laps Coulthard made his stop, managing to exit the pit lane just ahead of Schumacher to retain second position and give McLaren its first one-two win since last year's German Grand Prix and their second successive Spanish double.

Schumacher later laid the blame for failing to take second at the feet of Arrows driver Tora Takagi. "I might have been able to move into second if I hadn't been delayed when one of the Arrows took a very slow entry into the pit lane and I was stuck behind him. I think, for sure, that cost me."

Jordan, points scorers in every grand prix so far this season, left the Circuit de Catalunya empty-handed as Heinz Harald Frentzen retired with a broken driveshaft and Damon Hill finished seventh, after a daring move in the closing stages of the race saw him pass Rubens Barrichello.

"It's disappointing not to go home with any points - these days we're not used to going home without any," said Eddie Jordan. "Tyre choice was vital and in the end the hard tyres we had opted for didn't give us the advantage we had hoped for."

If there was regret in the Jordan camp, there was heartbreak at BAR where Villeneuve looked a good bet to secure the team's first points of the year after audaciously moving into third before being reeled in by the Ferraris. However, safely positioned in fifth, Villeneuve had to make an unscheduled stop to repair a collapsing rear-wing flap. The Canadian could then only pound his steering wheel in frustration as first the mechanics couldn't remove the flap and when eventually the wing was torn off, the cars suffered gear selection problems forcing Villeneuve to retire.