At the restart, Michael Schumacher and Trulli again held their positions, whilst Ralf Schumacher made the best start in the field moving from 9th to 6th place by the end of the first lap. Barrichello had lost two positions over the same distance. At the conclusion of the first lap, the order was Michael Schumacher, Trulli, Coulthard, Frentzen, Häkkinen, Ralf Schumacher, Alesi, Barrichello, Fisichella, Herbert, Irvine, Salo, Verstappen, Diniz, Villeneuve, Zonta, Mazzacane, Wurz, Button, Gené and Heidfeld. Michael Schumacher began to immediately pull clear from Trulli as he began setting consecutive fastest laps. Häkkinen started to challenge Frentzen for fourth position on lap two. By the eleventh lap, Michael Schumacher had built up his lead to Trulli over eleven seconds as Wurz performed the race's first overtake when he passed Mazzacane for 17th position. Button pulled over to the side of the track with engine problems and retired on lap 16. Michael Schumacher continued to increase his lead to Trulli to 19.5 seconds by lap 19. Trulli was in turn 0.7 seconds ahead of Coulthard. Frentzen was a further 2.1 seconds behind Coulthard and continued to battle the latter's teammate Häkkinen for fifth.