Alesi behind Schumacher, took on fresh fuel and tyres earlier than planned in a bid to move ahead of the Ferrari when it made its own visit to the pit lane. As he rejoined the race, Coulthard's Williams suffered an electronic failure that affected the car's throttle control when changing gears, but continued the race in ninth place regardless. The next few laps saw a flurry of activity in the pit lane as those drivers on two-stop strategies made pit stops at around one-third race distance, and also several retirements. On lap 17, Brundle spun out of seventh place at Luffield and beached his car in the gravel trap, and Inoue retired from 18th position after a similar mistake resulted in a stalled engine. On the same lap, Montermini made a pit stop from 19th place, which he maintained upon rejoining the race. On the following lap, Alesi made his pit stop from second position, releasing Schumacher, and rejoined in front of Coulthard, whilst Barrichello, recovering from his penalty, passed Frentzen for what had become eighth place. Schumacher slowly began to reduce Hill's lead, which had grown to 19.5 seconds. Salo made a pit stop on lap 19, dropping behind Papis and the Minardi drivers, but gained a position on Boullion when the Sauber driver stopped on the next lap. By this stage Häkkinen and Berger had risen to fourth and fifth respectively, but both retired on lap 21: Häkkinen's McLaren suffering a progressive electronic problem which caused its hydraulic system to fail; Berger pulling off the track shortly after making his first pit stop due to an incorrectly fitted left-front wheel. The remaining two-stoppers made pit stops on laps 21 and 22: Herbert came in from third place and retained his position by rejoining ahead of Alesi and Coulthard; Blundell dropped from fourth to seventh, Gachot retained 16th; and Barrichello and Panis made their first scheduled stops, the Jordan dropping from seventh to eighth and the Ligier rejoining in 11th from ninth. At the head of the field, Hill came in on lap 22, rejoining nine seconds behind Schumacher, who now led the race. Two further retirements also occurred during this stage of the race: Montermini spun out of 17th place on lap 22, whilst Katayama, who was due in for a pit stop of his own, retired from eighth position when his engine cut due to fuel starvation