| Rank | Heat | Nation | Athlete | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | | Allyn Condon, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish, Dwain Chambers | 38.47 | Q, SB |
| 2 | 1 | | Marcin Krzywański, Marcin Nowak, Piotr Balcerzak, Ryszard Pilarczyk | 39.16 | Q, SB |
| 3 | 1 | | Rodrigue Nordin, Frédéric Krantz, Christophe Cheval, Needy Guims | 39.21 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | | Patrick Schneider, Jerome Crews, Manuel Milde, Marc Blume | 39.25 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | | Alexandros Yenovelis, Alexios Alexopoulos, Georgios Panagiotopoulos, Haralabos Papadias | 39.27 | Q |
| 6 | 1 | | Martijn Ungerer, Patrick Snoek, Patrick van Balkom, Dennis Tilburg | 39.29 | q, NR |
| 7 | 2 | | Andrea Amici, Alessandro Attene, Sandro Floris, Stefano Tilli | 39.30 | Q |
| 8 | 2 | | Patrik Lövgren, Matias Ghansah, Torbjörn Eriksson, Peter Karlsson | 39.44 | q |
| 9 | 1 | | Erlend Sæterstøl, Thomas Mellin-Olsen, John Ertzgaard, Geir Moen | 39.77 | SB |
| 10 | 2 | | Martin Morkes, Ludvík Bohman, Tomas Drimal, Ivo Krsek | 39.76 | |
| 11 | 2 | | Damjan Spur, Martin Plesnicar, Boštjan Horvat, Urban Acman | 39.86 | |
| 12 | 2 | | Evripides Demosthenous, Anninos Marcoullides, Prodromos Katsantonis, Yiannis Zisimides | 40.96 | |
| 1 | | Frutos Feo, Javier Navarro, Diego Santos, Carlos Berlanga | | |
| 2 | | Roland Németh, Miklós Gyulai, Gyorgy Dobos, Gábor Dobos | | |
| 1 | | Sami Länsivuori, Tero Ridanpää, Harri Kivelä, Janne Haapasalo | | |
