Having qualified only sixth, Ferrari’s Jean Alesi didn’t much look like a contender for victory when he made an awful getaway and made matters worse by spinning at Turn 1, narrowly missing his team-mate Gerhard Berger but succeeding in causing a chain-reaction crash behind him – Tyrrell’s Mika Salo being rear-ended by a flying Luca Badoer (Minardi). Ligier’s Olivier Panis went off on the outside of the corner, after contact with Pierluigi Martini’s Minardi.
More chaos ensued further around the lap, with Johnny Herbert’s Benetton clashing with Rubens Barrichello, who was in turn collected by the luckless Badoer.
