morning Renault Clio Cup undercard round that saw fluids from the crashed vehicles spill onto the track, requiring marshals to lay cement mortar in an unsuccessful attempt to dry the oil puddles. This meant that a driver going wide under braking would lose traction on the asphalt surface. 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 engine failed and race officials aborted the start. This saw the mechanics return to the grid with their equipment. Diniz, meanwhile, was allowed to start from his qualifying position after Wurz's engine issue. The race began eight minutes later than scheduled; Michael Schumacher maintained the lead into the first corner. Behind him, Trulli 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 to signal a race stoppage across the circuit, except for the start/finish line. At the Loews hairpin De La Rosa attempted to overtake Button on the outside but Button's front-right wheel made contact with one of De La Rosa's rear wheels, sending De La Rosa into a spin. This created a traffic jam for six cars who were behind the two drivers and caused the race to be stopped since the track was blocked. All the cars that stopped on the circuit were abandoned. Button, Zonta, Heidfeld, Diniz and Gené restarted in 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. At the restart at 14:31 local time, Michael Schumacher and Trulli again held their positions, whilst Ralf Schumacher made the best start in the field, moving from ninth to sixth by the end of the first lap. Barrichello lost two positions over the same distance. At the conclusion of the first lap, the order was Michael Schumacher, Trulli, Coulthard, Frentzen, Häkkinen, and Ralf Schumacher. Michael Schumacher began to immediately pull away from Trulli as he began setting consecutive fastest laps. Häkkinen started to challenge Frentzen for fourth on lap two. By the 11th lap, Michael Schumacher led Trulli by more than 11 seconds as Wurz overtook Mazzacane for 17th place. Button entered the pit lane because telemetry indicated that his