Frentzen took his first career pole at the Monaco Grand Prix, but Villeneuve was back in third with Michael Schumacher splitting them. The Ferrari man jumped Frentzen at the very wet start and the Jordans of Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher also got through. Villeneuve had an awful start and was down to 9th, behind Coulthard, Herbert, Barrichello and Olivier Panis's Prost as well. Frentzen had a spin and Villeneuve had technical problems, and they were soon running 16th and 17th. As the rain continued to fall, they picked up places due to the accidents of Herbert and Jarno Trulli in the Minardi, Berger having to stop for a new front wing and actually passing Shinji Nakano's Prost on the racetrack. This left them in 11th and 12th with Frentzen still leading his teammate, but on lap 17 Villeneuve pulled into the pits with a problem, later identified as accident damage after a brush with the barrier, and retired. Frentzen picked up a place on the same lap due to Jean Alesi spinning his Benetton out of the race. The German passed Ukyo Katayama in the other Minardi a lap later, and was in 9th. He was still in 9th on lap 40 when he ran wide at the seafront chicane and bounced across the kerbs, damaging his right front suspension. He then hit the wall on the other side of the track, which caused almost identical damage to the left front suspension. He was out of the race, and the Williams Monaco challenge was over. Michael Schumacher's victory left him top of the championship by four points from Villeneuve. Frentzen had been demoted to fourth due to Eddie Irvine's 3rd place, and Williams had been bumped down to 2nd by the Ferrari performance.