grid, Webber ahead of the returning Yoong. Qualifying classification – Kimi Räikkönen's fastest time (1:21.163) was cancelled following a collision with Takuma Sato during qualifying, this dropped him one place from fifth to sixth. Race The race started at 14:00 local time. The weather conditions on the grid were dry and sunny before the race; the track temperature ranged between . Ralf Schumacher switched to the spare Williams because his regular car developed a fuel pressure problem. At the start, Montoya drove to the right to block Michael Schumacher, allowing teammate Ralf Schumacher to run alongside him heading into the Rettifilo chicane. Montoya ran wide to prevent a collision with Ralf, who drove over the chicane and thus took the lead illegally. Williams contacted FIA race director Charlie Whiting who replied that Ralf was required to cede the lead back to Montoya. McNish made the best start in the field, moving from thirteenth to seventh by the end of the first lap, while Panis made up four positions over the same distance. At the end of the first lap, the order of the top ten drivers was Ralf Schumacher, Montoya, Barrichello, Michael Schumacher, Räikkönen, Irvine, McNish, Salo, Panis and Villeneuve. Ralf Schumacher began to pull away from Montoya. Further down the field Villeneuve got ahead of Heidfeld to take over tenth, while Button passed Massa to move into thirteenth position and Yoong overtook teammate Webber for eighteenth. Ralf Schumacher set a new fastest lap, a 1:26.230 on lap three, but was later eclipsed by Barrichello. Villeneuve was overtaken by Trulli on the same lap and Webber reclaimed eighteenth from Yoong. Williams received a reply to order Ralf Schumacher to cede first position to Montoya which was relayed to Schumacher by the Senior Operations Engineer of Williams Sam Michael at the end of lap four. Afterwards Ralf Schumacher pulled over to the side of the track at the Rettifilo with smoke billowing from his engine and became the first retirement of the race at the start of lap five. His teammate Montoya thus temporarily inherited the lead but was blinded by the smoke, allowing Barrichello to move into the inside line, and after running in Montoya's slipstream, he passed the Williams driver for the lead under braking going into the Rettifilo. On lap fifteen Felipe Massa and Pedro de la Rosa collided at the Ascari chicane. In accordance with the new