McLaren still lead the pack
Although the free practice session and the final pre- qualifying set-up changes were brought to a halt 31 minutes prematurely because of a serious accident, the two McLaren- Mercedes still dominated the session with times almost a full second ahead of their rivals. Quickest time went to David Coulthard, who was already quicker than last year's pole winning time. He returned to the pits just before the accident and had an engine failure in the garage, thus would not have taken part in the final runs anyway. Mika Hakkinen was two tenth's slower than his team- mate at the time the session was stopped. Like many of his rivals, he had made set-up changes to his car ready for a quick qualifying lap, but did not get the chance to try them. " It will be a bit of guess work for the set-up for qualifying," said Hakkinen.
Frentzen looking strong
Heinz Harald Frentzen looks like being a strong challenger with the Jordan during qualifying. He took the third fastest time of the session running a heavy fuel load. "I was very happy with the handling of the car , but didn't get a chance to confirm it with a qualifying run," he said. The team are not worried about their oil system problems on both cars yesterday, "The two engines affected were Melbourne engines and the rest of the engines we have here had already been modified to eliminate the problem," said a team spokesman. Damon Hill was seventh fastest, the Englishman most concerned about his choice of tyres for he did not have enough running on the various types to make a well judged decision.
Ferrari fifth and eleventh
Both Michael Schumacher and his Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team-mate were caught out by the shortened practice neither driver able to try the set up changes they had just implemented before the red flag. Up to that point, Schumacher had made progress with the set-up of his car , setting what was to be the fifth fastest time of the session, but still had to improve it for qualifying. Irvine was 11th quickest, neither driver having run a fresh set of tyres this morning.
In brief..
An overnight re-build of Jean Alesi's Sauber saw the Frenchman a lot happier with the handling to-day, Jean setting sixth fastest time. Pedro Diniz was complaining of understeer from his car and had a spin early in the session. Alex Zanardi's woes at Williams continued when he again spent much of the session in the garage after more engine sensor problems. He ended up 14th, Ralf Schumacher in much better shape with the eighth fastest time. Both Prost drivers were complaining of a lack of traction from their cars, otherwise they were happier with the handling.
Saturday Free Practice - accumulated times:
Pos Driver Nat Team Time
1 Coulthard GBR McLaren Mercedes 1:17.035
2 Hakkinen FIN McLaren Mercedes 1:17.246 + 0.211
3 Frentzen GER Jordan Mugen-Hond 1:17.962 + 0.927
4 Barrichello BRA Stewart Ford 1:17.979 + 0.944
5 M.Schumacher GER Ferrari 1:18.110 + 1.075
6 Alesi FRA Sauber Petronas 1:18.383 + 1.348
7 Hill GBR Jordan Mugen-Hond 1:18.415 + 1.380
8 R.Schumacher GER Williams Supertec 1:18.480 + 1.445
9 Herbert GBR Stewart Ford 1:18.605 + 1.570
10 Fisichella ITA Benetton Playlife 1:18.635 + 1.600
11 Irvine GBR Ferrari 1:18.682 + 1.647
12 Diniz BRA Sauber Petronas 1:18.738 + 1.703
13 Wurz AUT Benetton Playlife 1:18.896 + 1.861
14 Zanardi ITA Williams Supertec 1:18.930 + 1.895
15 Trulli ITA Prost Peugeot 1:19.037 + 2.002
16 Villeneuve CAN BAR Supertec 1:19.459 + 2.424
17 Panis FRA Prost Peugeot 1:19.578 + 2.543
18 Zonta BRA BAR Supertec 1:19.662 + 2.627
19 Sarrazin FRA Minardi Ford 1:19.984 + 2.949
20 Takagi JPN Arrows TWR 1:20.008 + 2.973
21 de la Rosa SPN Arrows TWR 1:20.295 + 3.260
22 Gene SPN Minardi Ford 1:21.033 + 3.998
Weather: dry.
All Time Unofficial