McLaren head the field into qualifying

At the end of the third and final free practice session it was the two McLarens of David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen which headed the field into this afternoon's qualifying session, Coulthard just 500th's of a second ahead of his team-mate after they both ran practice qualifying laps. "We had a routine session. Qualifying will be all about who has what left up their sleeve," said Dennis.

Can Irvine make the front row?

By the end of the session Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's Eddie Irvine was tantalisingly close to his McLaren rivals , the Irishman just over a tenth of a second away from their best laps and the only other driver to break the 1m 12s lap barrier. The team concentrating on race set-up during the first half of the session and qualifying set-up at the end. Mika Salo was ninth fastest in the second Marlboro-Ferrari, the Finn doing a good job in his first outing with the car to end up just on a second slower than Irvine going into qualifying. "I was working slowly on the set-up as I didn't want to make a similar mistake as yesterday," said Salo.

Herbert on form for Stewart

Johnny Herbert set a quick lap early in the session and remained on form to end up fourth fastest of the morning, his best showing yet for the Stewart-Ford team after successful overnight changes to his car and the latest Series 3 Ford engine for qualifying. He took one trip across a gravel trap, but without any damage to his car. Rubens Barrichello was unable to better seventh fastest in the second Stewart, over half a second off the pace of his team-mate and saying that he wanted to revert back to the older series 2 engine for qualifying.

Fisichella fifth, Wurz 13th

Despite three high speed spins off the circuit which lost him track time , last year's pole-winner Giancarlo Fisichella drove hard to take the fifth fastest time of the session, blaming his trips off the track on a reduction of downforce, the only way in which he found to improve his lap times. His Austrian team-mate Alexander Wurz didn't manage better than 13th still complaining of too much understeer. He also had a spin.

Jordan drivers struggling

Although Damon Hill was fastest yesterday, he was unable to better 18th fastest this morning. Frentzen claimed sixth fastest of the session, but like Hill, who was running a long wheelbase chassis here, he had a couple of trips through gravel traps and was complaining of both understeer and oversteer on the same lap.

In brief...

Overnight changes saw Trulli happier with his Prost after setting tenth fastest time. Panis was back in 15th spot and still complaining of a lack of grip. Ralf Schumacher was happy with his car's performance and eighth place, but Zanardi was still struggling and unable to better 17th after two trips off the circuit.

Both BAR drivers were disappointed with 11th and 16th place this morning, the balance of their cars not as good as they had been yesterday. Sauber also slipped backwards, Alesi unable to better 12th today going slower on new tyres, while Diniz was 14th saying that each lap on new tyres was an improvement. Luca Badoer had a nasty moment when the fire extinguisher of his Minardi went off. Tora Takagi ripped the front wing off is Arrows and damaged a brake line when he went off at high speed.

Saturday Free Practice - Accumulated Times

Pos  Driver        Team                 Time                   
 1.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes     1:11.801   216.549 kmph
 2.  Hakkinen      McLaren Mercedes     1:11.854   + 0.053     
 3.  Irvine        Ferrari              1:11.926   + 0.125     
 4.  Herbert       Stewart Ford         1:12.139   + 0.338     
 5.  Fisichella    Benetton Playlife    1:12.679   + 0.878     
 6.  Frentzen      Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:12.693   + 0.892     
 7.  Barrichello   Stewart Ford         1:12.745   + 0.944     
 8.  R.Schumacher  Williams Supertec    1:12.801   + 1.000     
 9.  Salo          Ferrari              1:12.832   + 1.031     
10.  Trulli        Prost Peugeot        1:12.928   + 1.127     
11.  Villeneuve    BAR Supertec         1:12.946   + 1.145     
12.  Alesi         Sauber Petronas      1:12.966   + 1.165     
13.  Wurz          Benetton Playlife    1:13.065   + 1.264     
14.  Diniz         Sauber Petronas      1:13.262   + 1.461     
15.  Panis         Prost Peugeot        1:13.270   + 1.469     
16.  Zonta         BAR Supertec         1:13.316   + 1.515     
17.  Zanardi       Williams Supertec    1:13.326   + 1.525     
18.  Hill          Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:13.350   + 1.549     
19.  Badoer        Minardi Ford         1:13.553   + 1.752     
20.  Gene          Minardi Ford         1:13.851   + 2.050     
21.  Takagi        Arrows TWR           1:13.941   + 2.140     
22.  de la Rosa    Arrows TWR           1:14.091   + 2.290     

All timing unofficial