Häkkinen by 1.4 seconds. Further back, Zonta passed Heidfeld to take ninth. On lap 14, Zonta moved into seventh position after passing Gené and Wurz. Meanwhile, Verstappen overtook Fisichella on the inside into the first chicane to take fifth position on the 15th lap. Villeneuve became the race's next retirement from third position when he pulled over to the side of the track with an electrical fault that cut out his engine on that lap. On the 16th lap, Ralf Schumacher briefly lost control of his car and was overtaken by Verstappen and Zonta. Heidfeld retired after his engine failed and spun off at the Variante della Roggia chicane on the same lap, where he stalled his car on the track. A second deployment of the safety car was put on standby as marshals had difficulty removing his car from the circuit. There were no more retirements after that and attention switched to the battles at the front and rear of the running order. Salo passed Mazzacane for ninth place on lap 17. At the start of the 19th lap, Zonta tried to pass Verstappen heading into the Variante Goodyear chicane, but Verstappen moved onto an early defensive line to prevent Zonta from overtaking. Zonta attempted to overtake Verstappen on the inside into the Variante della Rogia chicane to move into third place two laps later, but was unable to complete it because he ran wide and allowed Verstappen to draw alongside on the outside. Verstappen briefly returned to third position before Zonta's more powerful engine enabled him to pass Verstappen after exiting the chicane on the same lap. Verstappen unsuccessfully attempted to repass Zonta for third. Michael Schumacher lapped consistently in the 1:26 range, setting the race's new fastest lap on lap 22, a 1:26.428, to extend his lead over Häkkinen to 5.4 seconds, who in turn was 9.9 seconds in front of Zonta. Verstappen in fourth was a further 2.9 seconds behind, but was drawing ahead of Ralf Schumacher in fifth. On lap 24, Zonta became the first front runner to make a scheduled pit stop for fuel and tyres and emerged in eleventh position. Salo overtook Wurz for sixth on lap 25. During laps 26 and 27, Zonta overtook Mazzacane and Diniz to move into ninth position. Salo made a second pit stop on lap 29 and emerged in tenth place. Verstappen made his pit stop four