Schumacher gives Ferrari pole at home

A delighted Michael Schumacher scored his first pole position of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro in what is certainly the most important race of the season to do so ; at Ferrari's home track and at a time when Schumacher needs to beat his McLaren rivals to stay in the fight for the title. " I was on a quicker lap when I made a mistake at one of the chicanes and had to abort the lap and then on my quickest lap I also went a bit wide at the last corner and could have gone a bit faster," said Schumacher. "I am delighted to have taken the pole here, it should make it a very interesting race," he predicted. Eddie Irvine was hoping to be up front with his team-mate, but like many of the drivers struggling to set their best lap in the final moments of practice when the damp track was almost dry, he ran into traffic and could not better fifth fastest.

Villeneuve shares the front row with Ferrari

"We made big changes to the car last night and with the rain this morning it wasn't until qualifying that I knew if it was any good or not," explained Jacques Villeneuve. "I had too much understeer and I couldn't brake very hard. It didn't feel like a very quick lap, so I was really happy when I discovered it was second quickest," added Jacques after his best qualifying performance of the season. Heinz-Harald Frentzen was back in twelfth place, the frustrated German , quickest this morning in the wet finding his car understeering more and more as the track conditions dried out and he pushed harder.

McLaren-Mercedes share the second row

Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard were both disappointed to be starting from the second row of the grid when both drivers had their best laps spoiled by traffic. "We didn't get the best out of our cars this afternoon, but in the conditions we had I knew it was going to be a gamble on a quick lap with everyone out on the track at the same time."

Ralf sixth as Hill slips to 14th

Ralf Schumacher might have made a mistake on his quickest lap but he still stopped the clocks with the sixth fastest time. Damon Hill's hopes of taking a place at the top end of the grid were spoiled when he had to driver around the outside of two slower cars on his final fast lap which left him a disappointed 14th fastest.

In brief...

The Prost team were delighted to get both their cars into the top 10 when Panis and Trulli claimed the fifth row of the grid. Wurz was seventh fastest , but his team-mate Fisichella had to put up with 11th after finding traffic on all of his final three flying laps. Herbert was the only driver to spin off. He hit the barrier when he lost control of his Sauber under braking, but was able to limp back to the pits and set his 15th fastest best lap in the team's spare car.

Timing

POS DRIVER                NATION    TEAM                        TIME                
  1 Michael Schumacher    GER       Ferrari F300                1:25.289    243.548 kph 
  2 Jacques Villeneuve    CAN       Williams-Mecachrome FW20    1:25.561    + 0.272    
  3 Mika Hakkinen         FIN       McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13     1:25.679    + 0.390    
  4 David Coulthard       GBR       McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13     1:25.987    + 0.698    
  5 Eddie Irvine          GBR       Ferrari F300                1:26.159    + 0.870    
  6 Ralf Schumacher       GER       Jordan-Mugen-Honda 198      1:26.309    + 1.020    
  7 Alexander Wurz        AUT       Benetton-Mecachrome B198    1:26.567    + 1.278    
  8 Jean Alesi            FRA       Sauber-Petronas C17         1:26.637    + 1.348    
  9 Olivier Panis         FRA       Prost-Peugeot AP01          1:26.681    + 1.392    
 10 Jarno Trulli          ITA       Prost-Peugeot AP01          1:26.794    + 1.505    
 11 Giancarlo Fisichella  ITA       Benetton-Mecachrome B198    1:26.817    + 1.528    
 12 Heinz-Harald Frentzen GER       Williams-Mecachrome FW20    1:26.836    + 1.547    
 13 Rubens Barrichello    BRA       Stewart-Ford SF2            1:27.247    + 1.958    
 14 Damon Hill            GBR       Jordan-Mugen-Honda 198      1:27.362    + 2.073    
 15 Johnny Herbert        GBR       Sauber-Petronas C17         1:27.510    + 2.221    
 16 Mika Salo             FIN       Arrows A19                  1:27.744    + 2.455    
 17 Jos Verstappen        NED       Stewart-Ford SF2            1:28.212    + 2.923    
 18 Ricardo Rosset        BRA       Tyrrell-Ford 026            1:28.286    + 2.997    
 19 Toranosuke Takagi     JPN       Tyrrell-Ford 026            1:28.346    + 3.057    
 20 Pedro Diniz           BRA       Arrows A19                  1:28.387    + 3.098     
 21 Sinji Nakano          JPN       Minardi-Ford M198           1:29.101    + 3.812    
 22 Esteban Tuero         ARG       Minardi-Ford M198           1:29.417    + 4.128    
                                                                                       
    Saturday Qualifying 107%                                        1:31.259    + 5.970    

All timing is unofficial

Temps:	
Air 18-22C
Track 22-26C

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