conditions. During the warm up lap, the weather worsened, and at the start, Schumacher was quickest. He led by 22 seconds on lap 5. Behind him the Jordans of Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher, which both had the car set for rain, took second and third spots, until they were both passed by Barrichello's Stewart, who benefited from the Bridgestone wet tyres, which were better than Goodyear's under those conditions. The start of the race was catastrophic for the Arrows team, as Pedro Diniz, who had opted to start the race on slick tyres, spun out after the hairpin on the opening lap, while his teammate Damon Hill was involved in a collision with Irvine's Ferrari on the second lap, breaking his suspension. Both McLarens also retired on lap two as Coulthard hit the wall exiting the tunnel, and Häkkinen ran into the back of Alesi's Benetton as they passed Coulthard's car. Both Willams drivers went out of the race after they had to pit to change their tyres. Frentzen hit a barrier at the chicane on lap 39, while Villeneuve hit a wall and had to retire on lap 17. Schumacher continued to build his lead until he had about 30 seconds advantage over Barrichello; then he backed off and began to maintain the gap. He made an error on lap 53 at the Sainte Devote corner, going down the escape road and losing 10 seconds, but did not lose his lead. Only 62 of the scheduled 78 laps were run as the two-hour time limit was reached, and Schumacher won with a 53-second margin over Barrichello. Irvine finished third after overtaking Olivier Panis, exacting some measure of revenge for Panis' overtaking manoeuvre that had seen him get past Irvine a year earlier. After losing third place to Irvine, Panis backed off in the closing stages and settled for fourth place. Mika Salo finished fifth despite denting his front wing on debris left from Häkkinen's accident early on, and also despite not making a single pit stop during the race. Fisichella, who at one point was running as high as second place, finished in sixth. The race was the first win for a Ferrari driver since the 1981 running of the Monaco Grand Prix. On the podium, the flag displayed for Eddie Irvine was that of the Republic of Ireland, instead of the Union Jack of the United Kingdom (Irvine