Summary

Jacques Villeneuve took pole from his team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the last minutes of the session. Mika Hakkinen, who was fastest for most part of the session ended third.

Norberto Fontana seems to get used to the Sauber car with an excellent 14th spot. He has to start from the back however because his time was disallowed, he missed a weight check.

Notes

• Barrichello parks his car beside the track just after he had left the pits for the first time. He blows up a Ford engine at the end of the session leaving him last on the grid.
• Alesi starts in his race car but continues in his T-car after his first drive.
• Magnussen has some engine problems in the pits.
  • Weather during session: Sunny, some clouds (21 Degrees)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

Villeneuve (Williams) G Frentzen (Williams) G Hakkinen (McLaren) G M. Schumacher (Ferrari) G R. Schumacher (Jordan) G Coulthard (McLaren) G Irvine (Ferrari) G Wurz (Benetton) G Herbert (Sauber) G Fisichella (Jordan) G Alesi (Benetton) G Hill (Arrows) B Trulli (Prost) B Fontana (Sauber) G Nakano (Prost) B Magnussen (Stewart) B Diniz (Arrows) B Salo (Tyrrell) G Katayama (Minardi) B Verstappen (Tyrrell) G Marques (Minardi) B Barrichello (Stewart) B 107% rule B: Bridgestone G: Goodyear

1m 21.598s 1m 21.732s 1m 21.797s 1m 21.977s 1m 22.277s 1m 22.279s 1m 22.342s 1m 22.344s 1m 22.368s 1m 22.371s 1m 22.392s 1m 23.271s 1m 23.366s 1m 23.790s 1m 24.053s 1m 24.067s 1m 24.239s 1m 24.478s 1m 24.553s 1m 25.010s 1m 25.154s 1m 25.525s 1m 27.310s

The Quotes

• Villeneuve: "It is possible to have a really quick car and still not finish in the points. But I am happy to be on pole position because this is a very difficult track to get the most out of yourself on. I was annoyed to see Heinz-Harald on pole near the end of the session because he was quite a bit slower than me in practice and I knew I didn't want him to be ahead of me. I saw a cloud come over, which slightly cooled the track and made the car faster, and I just went for it. It was very enjoyable."

• Frentzen: "I was very annoyed when he got it back at the last moment. My main complaint has been traffic today because on all of my runs I came across traffic."

• Hakkinen: "I am not really happy. I was really confident I could be in pole position, even after the Williams cars went out, but unfortunately there were cars in front of me which meant I could not run at the maximum."

• M. Schumacher: "Overall, I am quite happy and this is the position I expected. Starting from the second row suits me well. The car has improved since yesterday, but it is not as good as it was last week at the tests. Tomorrow I am to maintain a good lead over Villeneuve in the Championship by taking as many points as possible. It is almost impossible to pass on this track if others do not make mistakes. I hope I can make it to the podium."

• Irvine: "I got a big fright on my first quick lap when I hit a hare. I was forced to pit to check over the car and change tyres. My car has a tendency to wash out in the middle of the corners. We put more downforce on, but as I was short of time I was not able to check what effect this had before going for a quick lap. I think the race will be very tough, as it will be difficult to maintain a very quick pace."

• Salo: "The car felt really good, especially on the first two timed laps, and everything was working well. Silverstone is a 'power' circuit - even more so after the modifications - and that was always likely to count against us."

• Verstappen: "The handling balance was reasonable this afternoon, although we are still losing a bit of time through the slow corners. Of course I am not delighted to be in this position, but I think that after losing time during yesterday's practice, it is probably as good as we could have expected."

• Herbert: "The car functions very good here and we could make a small step forward but there is still a lot to do. Just a small step more could have made the difference. My only problem was a spin in the morning."