As the two Ferraris pulled away from the rest of the field on lap two, Panis' engine failed, pitching his car backwards into the gravel trap. Leaking oil pooled on the track and dripped onto his hot exhaust, where it ignited. Fisichella overtook his teammate Button for 11th as Ralf Schumacher moved from 20th to 14th. An unexpected monsoon shower began to fall on lap three. The two Ferraris continued to pull further away from the rest of the field, although they were unaware of Panis' deposited oil. Both drivers slid on the oil and into the gravel trap, and navigated back onto the track in third and seventh. Trulli took the lead with Coulthard in second. None of the leaders made pit stops to switch to wet-weather compound tyres immediately because half of the track was dry while the final hairpin was flooded. On lap four, Montoya, Bernoldi, Heidfeld and Villeneuve aquaplaned into a gravel trap and retired. Race officials deployed the safety car on the lap though several cars, including Trulli, Coulthard and Barrichello, aquaplaned into the turn 15 hairpin.
