Heading into the fifth race of the 1997 season, Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve led the Drivers' Championship with 20 points, followed by Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher on 14. Behind them were five drivers on 10 points each: Villeneuve's team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen, McLaren driver David Coulthard, Schumacher's team-mate Eddie Irvine, Benetton driver Gerhard Berger, and Coulthard's team-mate Mika Häkkinen. In the Constructors' Championship, Williams led with 30 points, followed by Ferrari on 24 and McLaren on 20.
Qualifying
Qualifying saw Heinz-Harald Frentzen qualify on pole in his Williams in front of Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari; third was Jacques Villeneuve in the other Williams. Fourth was Giancarlo Fisichella in the Jordan-Peugeot, while the fifth place was taken by David Coulthard in the McLaren and the sixth by Ralf Schumacher in the second Jordan, showing the good setup the team had found on the circuit.
Race
The warm-up session was dry, with Williams taking first and second places. But about 30 minutes to go before the start, rain began to fall; Williams decided to run both cars with dry tyres, thinking the weather would improve, while Michael Schumacher set the car for intermediate weather conditions. During the warm up lap, the weather worsened, and at the start, Schumacher was quickest. He led by 22 seconds on lap 5. Behind him the Jordans, which both had the car set for rain, took second and third spots, until they were both passed by Rubens Barrichello in the Stewart, who benefited from the Bridgestone wet tyres, which were better than Goodyear's under those conditions. The start of the race was catastrophic for the Arrows team, as Pedro Diniz, who had opted to start the race on slick tyres, spun out after the hairpin on the opening lap, while his team-mate Damon Hill was involved in a collision with Eddie Irvine's Ferrari on the second lap, breaking his suspension. Both McLarens also retired on lap two as David Coulthard hit the wall exiting the tunnel, and Mika Häkkinen ran into the back of Jean Alesi as they passed Coulthard's car. Both Willams drivers went out of the race after they had to pit to change their tyres. Frentzen hit a barrier at the chicane on lap 39, while Villeneuve hit a wall and had to retire on lap 17. Schumacher continued to build his lead until he had about 30 seconds advantage over Barrichello; then he backed off and began to maintain the gap. He made an error on lap 53 at the Sainte Devote corner, in which he went down the escape road and lost 10 seconds, but did not lose his lead. The race was stopped on lap 62 instead of the 78 scheduled because of the time limit of 2 hours, and Schumacher won with a 53-second margin over Barrichello. Irvine finished third after overtaking Olivier Panis, exacting some measure of revenge for Panis' overtaking manoeuvre that had seen him get past Irvine a year earlier. After losing third place to Irvine, Panis backed off in the closing stages and settled for fourth place. Mika Salo finished fifth despite denting his front wing on debris left from Häkkinen's accident early on, and also despite not making a single pit stop during the race. This was the last race the feat was achieved. Giancarlo Fisichella, who at one point was running as high as second place, finished in sixth. The race was the first win for a Ferrari driver since the 1981 running of the Monaco Grand Prix. On the podium, the wrong flag was displayed for driver Eddie Irvine. The flag displayed was that of the Republic of Ireland, instead of the Union Jack of the United Kingdom.
