Minutes before the lights winked out to start the Italian Grand Prix formation lap, pole-positioned Mika Hakkinen collared second-placed Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the pit lane to wish the Jordan driver a good race. Frentzen, who had the previous day joked that he would have liked a little revenge for the duo's identical qualifying result at Hockenheim a month ago, told the Finn that he would be "really going for it".

One hour and 17 minutes later, Frentzen was rewarded with the sweetest vengeance, capitalising on a Hakkinen error to win the race and simultaneously close to within touching distance of the McLaren driver's world championship lead.

Hakkinen, meanwhile, was left with only his tears and the realisation that he had let his closest championship rival, Eddie Irvine, draw back onto level terms.

It should have been so much simpler. Redressing the balance after his disastrous jump start and first corner collision the previous fortnight in Spa, Hakkinen got away cleanly as Frentzen struggled to keep the Williams of Alex Zanardi and Ferrari's Mika Salo at bay and sailed through the first chicane and into a lead which he never looked like losing.

That was until the 30th lap. Even though Frentzen had seen off Salo's challenge and re-taken his second position from Zanardi, Hakkinen was still comfortably holding a seven-second lead. But as he guided his McLaren toward the Rettifilio chicane, he carelessly mis-selected gear and lost control of the rear of the car, sliding sideways and nudging into the crash barriers before coming to a stalled rest.

As a jubilant Frentzen screamed past and into the lead, the Finn scrambled from his beached car, threw his gloves down in fury and strode off through the Monza forest towards the McLaren garage. Moments later, the implications of his carelessness hit and the Finn sank to the ground, head in hands and inconsolable.

"I was really angry with myself," he admitted later, "but I've had time to calm down now and I can't let myself get despondent. I have to remind myself that I'm still leading the world championship and with three races left, I can still do it."

Hakkinen's slip characterised an afternoon in which McLaren managed to let slide the complete dominance they had achieved over nearest rivals Ferrari over the rest of the weekend. The Finn's team-mate, David Coulthard, too, threw away his chances after a poor start from third saw him eclipsed by Zanardi, Ralf Schumacher and Salo. The Scot ended his day fifth, gaining McLaren two more constructors' title points. The boon was of little consolation as the Woking-based team had to watch Irvine nurse his Ferrari home to sixth and a point which sees him move into joint leadership of the championship. Worse though, for McLaren, was the sparkling performance of Salo. The Ferrari stand-in has suffered the same set-up difficulties as Irvine through the weekend, but after qualifying sixth pushed his ill-handling car into a podium-finish third and four points which see the Scuderia close to within six points of McLaren in the manufacturers' competition.

"The result was certainly not what we expected from this race," admitted Mercedes motorsport director Nobert Haug.

"I feel sorry for Mika - to be in the lead and in control of a race is sometimes a really difficult task. Many world champions have made mistakes in these circumstances, as has Mika today."

Once Hakkinen had exited the race, the remaining 23 laps proved a formality. After an uncomplicated pit stop, Frentzen cruised back into the lead and despite some close attention from the charging Ralf Schumacher, comfortably maintained a four and five-second cushion over the Williams.

"I didn't really have any problems after the pit stop," Frentzen admitted. "I was just calculating the gap to Ralf and doing what was needed to hold it. I didn't push like hell, I just wanted to bring my baby safely home."

The race was less kind to team-mate Damon Hill. The Englishman, ended the day 10th after a pit stop error allowed Jacques Villeneuve to move ahead of him in the pit-lane to bring home his BAR for the second successive race.

"I'm disappointed with the result because I was up into the points," said Hill. "But then, after my pit stop I caught the ignition switch by mistake and had to restart the engine. Then the power-steering wouldn't work, so I had to drive without that. But it was a good win for Heinz."