The race started with 100,000 people in attendance at 14:00 local time. The conditions on the grid were dry before the race; the air temperature was and the track temperature was . At the start of the parade lap Diniz was unable to get away and was forced to start at the back of the grid. At the starting procedure Wurz's car suffered an engine failure and the start was aborted. Diniz, meanwhile, was allowed to start from his qualifying position after Wurz's engine issues. Michael Schumacher maintained his lead heading into the first corner, whilst Trulli, behind him, remained in second position. Immediately afterwards a glitch in the FIA computer software called for the race to be suspended, however marshals did not wave red flags across the circuit, except for the start/finish line. At the hairpin de la Rosa attempted to overtake Button and the latter sent de la Rosa into a spin. The result created a traffic jam for cars who were behind the two drivers and led to an actual red flag period, during which Button, Zonta, Heidfeld, Diniz and Gené got into their team's spare cars, and were thus required to start from the pit lane. de la Rosa, however, did not have a spare car available and could not take the restart.