By the 22nd lap Michael Schumacher increased his lead over Montoya to 11.3 seconds with consecutive lap times in the 1 minute, 29 second range. Räikkönen was eight-tenths of a second behind Montoya. On the same lap, Coulthard went off the track at Prost corner. His reduced speed promoted Irvine to fourth soon after. On lap 23 Bernoldi was disqualified from the race because the stewards deemed him to have switched to the spare car after the race began. Webber and Villeneuve passed Coulthard for fifth and sixth on laps 25 and 26. Villeneuve in sixth had a rear wing failure that sent him into the tyre wall at high speed on the entry to Waite corner and retirement from his 100th race entry on lap 28. He was unhurt. On lap 29, Yoong overtook Coulthard for sixth position. Seven laps later, Coulthard became the race's final retirement when he pulled off to the side of track at Whiteford corner because his McLaren was stuck in sixth gear.
