Barrichello started to pull away from Ralf Schumacher who was being caught by Michael Schumacher. Elsewhere in the field, Bernoldi moved ahead of Irvine for 14th position and Villeneuve overtook Yoong and de la Rosa to move into 18th. Michael Schumacher moved into second place after he passed Ralf Schumacher at the RTL Kurve on the third lap and began to close the gap to Barrichello. Panis moved ahead of Salo for twelfth and Villeneuve overtook Webber for 17th. Villeneuve ran wide during the course of lap four but retained his 17th position. Trulli ran deep into turn one and fell down from eighth to twelfth place on the following lap, while Barrichello and Michael Schumacher continued to pull away from Ralf Schumacher. Trulli regained eleventh position after passing Panis on lap six while Salo in 13th spun and lost six positions. Webber made mistake and ran wide on lap seven and dropped behind de la Rosa and Salo to 19th position, while Yoong took a drive-through penalty because he jumped the start. By lap eight, Michael Schumacher was catching teammate Barrichello and was 1.4 seconds behind the Brazilian driver, and was right behind him by the tenth lap. Trulli had moved back up into ninth on the same lap after overtaking McNish and Heidfeld, while Bernoldi was passed by Frentzen for 13th place.