Hakkinen takes ninth pole of the year

In a close fought battle with Marlboro-Ferrari's Eddie Irvine , Mika Hakkinen took his ninth pole of the season just one tenth of a second clear of Irvine. "My best run was my first one as I had traffic on my second run, the third was not so good and on my last run was spoiled by debris from Johnny Herbert's car," said Hakkinen. David Coulthard took the third place on the grid saying that he didn't string a whole lap together quickly. "A good start and the right pit-stop strategy will be key factors in this race," he said.

Irvine almost claims the pole

"We knew if we were going to take the pole anywhere it would be here. I think I could have clinched the pole on my last lap but I had Herbert's wing in the middle of the road. The car was quite good, but I just couldn't get it adjusted to work well on all three sections of the track at the same time," said Irvine, who was never-the-less pleased to make the front row of the grid. "It's not great to be starting on the wrong side of the grid, but technique counts for 80 percent of the start and the track 20 percent as Mika has showed in the past," explained Irvine. Mika Salo was a disappointed 18th on the grid. He had one trip across the gravel trap on his second run, but basically struggled to have the confidence in the car to push any harder at this tricky circuit.

Fisichella takes second row for Benetton

Giancarlo Fisichella was delighted with his fourth place position on the grid , the Benetton driver saying that the aerodynamic modifications the team had made on the car had improved it by around 3/10th's of a second and claimed that he could have gone still quicker but for understeer at the end of his best lap. Alexander Wurz was also pleased with improvements to his car which saw him set the seventh fastest time of the session. It was suspected that the Benetton drivers were running the extra soft tyres.

Jordan take row three of the grid

Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Damon Hill were sharing the third row of the grid , Frentzen a frustrated fifth after what he described as a very difficult session. " I had no balance on my first run , the second wasn't bad , but the third was spoiled by a piece which came off the front wing causing bad understeer. I was hoping for a good final run , but that was spoiled when Johnny Herbert pulled across me as I went through the final corner and we touched," said Frentzen. Hill complained of too much understeer from his car, saying that sixth place was the worst he had started in Hungary since he drove for Brabham at the start of his career. Both Jordan's were on the soft tyre option.

Both Stewart's make the top 10

Rubens Barrichello blamed the rising track temperatures for too much understeer and a car that was very nervous to drive compared with his morning practice, the Brazilian unable to better eighth. Herbert had to content himself with tenth fastest , his accident with Frentzen spoiling what he hoped would have been a better lap.

In brief...

Alesi did a good job with his T-car to head row six from Sauber team-mate Diniz following his accident this morning. Trulli and Panis were disappointed with row seven of the grid. Trulli had a new engine for qualifying, but said it still didn't feel too good. Panis found traffic on his best run and ended up 14th.

The Williams drivers were unable to better the eighth row of the grid. Zanardi found traffic on three of his four runs and made a mistake on the other run. Schumacher complained of bad handling and thought a damper problem might have been the cause.

Pos  Driver        Team                 Time                  
 1.  Hakkinen      McLaren Mercedes     1:18.156  182.957 kmph
 2.  Irvine        Ferrari              1:18.263  + 0.107     
 3.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes     1:18.384  + 0.228     
 4.  Fisichella    Benetton Supertec    1:18.515  + 0.359     
 5.  Frentzen      Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:18.664  + 0.508     
 6.  Hill          Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:18.667  + 0.511     
 7.  Wurz          Benetton Supertec    1:18.733  + 0.577     
 8.  Barrichello   Stewart Ford         1:19.095  + 0.939     
 9.  Villeneuve    BAR Supertec         1:19.127  + 0.971     
10.  Herbert       Stewart Ford         1:19.389  + 1.233     
11.  Alesi         Sauber Petronas      1:19.390  + 1.234     
12.  Diniz         Sauber Petronas      1:19.782  + 1.626     
13.  Trulli        Prost Peugeot        1:19.788  + 1.632     
14.  Panis         Prost Peugeot        1:19.841  + 1.685     
15.  Zanardi       Williams Supertec    1:19.924  + 1.768     
16.  R.Schumacher  Williams Supertec    1:19.945  + 1.789     
17.  Zonta         BAR Supertec         1:20.060  + 1.904     
18.  Salo          Ferrari              1:20.369  + 2.213     
19.  Badoer        Minardi Ford         1:20.961  + 2.805     
20.  de la Rosa    Arrows TWR           1:21.328  + 3.172     
21.  Takagi        Arrows TWR           1:21.675  + 3.519     
22.  Gene          Minardi Ford         1:21.867  + 3.711     

All timing unofficial