Early Thursday, the FIA declared that the Portuguese Grand Prix was to be switched in favour of a European Grand Prix at Jerez in Spain. The FIA accused Estoril officials of negligence concerning mandated track and facility changes.

In an immediate move, the Portuguese government intervened and promised the FIA that changes would occur. A Portuguese FIA representative confirmed the latest development and added that this final Grand Prix of the year would be held on November 9th from October 26th.

They said: "The government accepts the challenge and will put every effort into completing the necessary work in time to satisfy the FIA,"

A major blow to TWR Arrows surfaced today at Magny-Cours in France. The newly developed Yamaha powerplant, after being delayed since the San Marino Grand Prix, has performed well below expectations during recent testing. Damon Hill stated, "The new engine we have been trying here (in Magny-Cours) hasn't shown too much promise so we're going to be using the same engine for the rest of the season."

A lot of teams were testing on the Barcelona (Spain) track again today. Villeneuve was fastest followed by his team-mate Frentzen. Things didn't go so well for Michael Schumacher he was 13th.

Ralf Schumacher had a scary moment today when a tyre blew up when he was driving at a speed of over 300 kilometres per hour. The German was very calm about it: "It good the gravel traps are so big here."

Verstappen tested the ED5 Ford engine on the Silverstone (England) circuit. He showed himself pleased about the performance of the new engine.