This was the third event to take place with electronic sensors monitoring every car for jump-starts, and at this stage of the race, six drivers (Barrichello, Brundle, Montermini, Frentzen, Morbidelli and Panis) were issued with ten-second stop-go penalties for this offence. All except Montermini came in promptly to serve their penalties – some even having to form a queue in the penalty area – but the Pacific driver failed to pit within the stipulated three laps of receiving it, whereupon he was disqualified from the race, having climbed to 17th place before belatedly serving his penalty. The penalised drivers dropped back through the field as a result of losing time, with the result that after 16 laps completed, the race order was: Hill, Schumacher, Coulthard, Alesi, Berger, Herbert, Irvine, Blundell, Badoer, Katayama, Brundle, Martini, Barrichello, Panis, Frentzen, Boullion, Salo, Montermini (yet to serve his penalty), Gachot, Inoue, Diniz and Morbidelli.