two Benetton cars. Salo qualified in 13th position despite a misunderstanding with his race engineer over a yellow flag. Similarly, Button who took 14th in the other Williams, was caught out by the waved yellow flags. Button was slowed by an understeer as well as traction and braking problems. The two Arrows drivers filled the next two positions with Verstappen in 15th and De La Rosa in 16th; the latter crashed at the Rascasse chicane. BAR's Jacques Villeneuve started from 17th after an engine failure entering Lowes corner forced him to stop at the furthest place from the pit lane and laid oil on the circuit. Villeneuve was required to drive his team's spare car for the rest of the session. Heidfeld, 18th, reported experiencing a lack of grip and understeer. He qualified ahead of Diniz and BAR's Ricardo Zonta in 19th and 20th respectively. The two Minardi drivers of Marc Gené and Gastón Mazzacane qualified in 21st and 22nd respectively; both drivers crashed at Rascasse. Qualifying classification Warm-up The drivers took to the track at 09:30 Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) for a 30-minute warm-up session. It took place in dry and warm weather conditions. Barrichello had the fastest time of 1:22.251, with his Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher second-fastest. Ralf Schumacher recorded the third fastest lap with Coulthard fourth. The session was disrupted when De La Rosa lost traction in his car and striking the barriers leaving Tabac turn shortly before the session concluded – the session was prematurely ended as marshals were required to clear the track – and reduced Arrows' number of available race vehicles to two. Herbert clipped the tyre barrier at Piscine turn in the Swimming Pool complex after spinning on oil on the circuit, which forced him to drive the spare car for the Grand Prix. Race The race commenced with 100,000 people in attendance at 14:30 local time, running for a total of 78 laps over a distance of . The conditions on the grid were dry before the race; the air temperature was and the track temperature was . Michael Schumacher, Barrichello Häkkinen, Coulthard, Button and Mazzacane began on the soft tyre compound. Bridgestone advised drivers using the soft compound tyre to begin on new sets and those on the supersoft compound to use scrubbed tyres. The circuit at Sainte Devote corner had become slippery due to a two-car accident during the