Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve, David Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher crashed as they were coming up high from Beau Rivage.

[2] Polesitter Kimi Räikkönen led the field from the start of the race, and though he was at first closely followed by Fernando Alonso, he was more than five seconds ahead by the twentieth lap.

The race progressed otherwise uneventfully, with Fernando Alonso followed by Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli, and Mark Webber, until the twenty-third lap, when Christijan Albers spun his Minardi into a wall at Mirabeau, blocking about two-thirds of the width of the track.

Both Renault drivers pitted immediately, but Räikkönen—acting on instructions from McLaren chief strategist Neil Martin—continued on in what was to prove a winning move.

Alonso, whose car was substantially slower as it was full of fuel, and whose rear tyres were wearing rapidly, was unable to catch up, and Räikkönen, after pitting, returned to the track still 13 seconds ahead.

Montoya advanced from sixteenth on the grid to an eventual fifth, finishing on Alonso's tail, followed by Michael and Ralf Schumacher, who crossed the line almost side-by-side.