The frenetic F1 race with three starts and drivers sprinting to make the grid

As the F1 grid made their way through the final corner to line of for the start of the 2000 Monaco Grand Prix, it all looked to be business as usual. Michael Schumacher pulled into pole position in his Ferrari, with Jarno Trulli and the vibrant yellow Jordan alongside on the front row.

Last in the pack of 22 cars was Pedro Diniz and his Sauber, which had failed to launch for the formation lap but was revived for the race. There were seconds to go until lights out — but it would be half an hour before racing really got underway following one of Formula 1’s most chaotic start sequences.

The problems started before the start light sequence even began, as two arms extended out the cockpit of Alexander Wurz’s Benetton. Marshals brandished double waved yellows as it became clear his engine had gone kaput, meaning the start would need to be aborted to remove the stationary car.

Yellow lights flashed and eventually the 21 drivers headed around for another lap of Monte Carlo, once the Benetton had been pushed into the pitlane.

The field quickly came back around, and the aborted start offered a reprieve for Diniz who could take up his original position of 19th on the grid.

This time the five lights were activated and Schumacher led away, holding position from Trulli on the climb up Saint Devote. But already former racer and pundit Martin Brundle had spotted an anomaly in the starting procedure.

“Everybody got away very poorly and I’m not surprised,” Brundle stated, “the red light was on for so long. The red light seemed to be forever going out, and I am sure all the drivers were champing at the bit. It’s unusual, as it’s normally just over three seconds.”

Just as he finished his point and the cars reached the hairpin, television cameras showed a red flag being waved on the start-finish straight. At first this was the only red flag being shown around the circuit — the result of a computer glitch that resulted in no data being shown as drivers made their way through each sector.

But a race stoppage had been inevitable because moments later, rookie Jenson Button clipped the Arrows of Pedro de la Rosa who had been attempting an ambitious pass on the outside, sending the Spanish driver into a spin that blocked the entirety of the track. Several drivers were caught up in the jam, which included Marc Gené, Gastón Mazzacane and Nick Heidfeld to name a few.

“We’ve got no data on the computer at all on this lap, and I suspect there has been some kind of power failure,” Brundle added. “Certainly the red flag was out long before this little car park.”

Lead commentator Murray Walker had his thoughts too: “The whole of Formula 1, like the whole of our lives these days, seems to be controlled by computers. The cars trip a computer mechanism as they cross the line so that we all get their times and the gaps in between, and in many ways the old way was the best – but not here today!”