Trulli went out with a hydraulics problem on lap 31 and Frentzen crashed without injury in the tunnel 19 laps later.

'Everything was okay at the start,' said Frentzen. 'I chose the manual option because it was safer and got away without incident. Although I couldn't overtake anyone, I was having a consistent and solid race and the car's handling and balance felt very good. I was in seventh place, chasing Jean Alesi, and I don't know exactly what happened in the tunnel. I experienced understeer after the apex, and then hit the barrier on the exit, sliding all the way down to the chicane. The impact was quite hard and I hit my head. Starting from thirteenth position on the grid was clearly unlucky for me today.'

Trulli was into the top six by lap three, battling strongly with the Jaguar of Eddie Irvine which eventually finished third. Jarno was into fifth place when he began to experience problems with the rear of the car.

'I am extremely disappointed with what happened today,' said Trulli. 'After a good start and a trouble-free first part of the race, I was struggling over five or six laps with the rear of the car. The next thing I knew, the car stopped at Rascasse on lap 50 with flames coming out the back. I'm not sure what the cause was but it seems to have been a hydraulic problem, with the car losing pressure over those laps, which explains why the handling became difficult. Until then, the car felt very good and I was not really pushing too hard as I was trying to save the tyres. Monte Carlo is clearly not a circuit where things go well for me. This result is so frustrating because we seem to be competitive. But we must be in a position to finish more races.'

'As today's result shows, it was very easy to score points if you could make it to the end, which unfortunately, we were unable to do,' said Trevor Foster, Joint Managing Director, Jordan Grand Prix. 'Until we get the cars back and analyse the data, we can't be sure exactly what happened with either car. Heinz obviously hit the barrier, but we have yet to find the cause. It looked like Jarno had some kind of lubricant fire - possibly hydraulic fluid or engine oil.'

Eddie Jordan, Chief Executive, added: 'This has sadly not been a good weekend for Jordan. We must put Austria and Monaco behind us and return to our point-scoring form of the first five races this season.'

The seventh round of the championship was dominated by Michael Schumacher, his situation being helped by a poor showing from McLaren. David Coulthard's pole position went to waste when he had a problem with the launch control electronics and had to start from the back, the Scotsman working his way through the field to finish fifth. After challenging Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen's race ended with handling problems caused by a suspected steering fault. Rubens Barrichello gave Ferrari a one-two, the Brazilian finishing half a minute ahead of Irvine's Jaguar. Only 10 of the 22 starters were running after 78 laps.

The eighth round of the FIA Formula One World Championship will be the Canadian Grand Prix on 10 June.

Jordan Grand Prix