Summary

The battle for the championship is very much on. Jacques Villeneuve grabbed pole position on the Jerez circuit today. He then saw Michael Schumacher come close, so close even that he just drove the same time as Villeneuve. And if this wasn't enough Frentzen just pulled out the same lap. So amazingly the amazing thing happened.

Damon Hill also come very close to pole with just five hundreds of a second in fourth place.

With Villeneuve and Schumacher so evenly matched it seems the race will be a thrill tomorrow. Although Williams will have two drivers in front which could help Villeneuve.

Michael Schumacher seemed to ignore yellow flag presented near his brothers spin off and by doing so risking the same penalty Villeneuve received at Japan, but Schumacher stated: "I saw the yellow flags for my brother's accident, but the rules say that if the flag is stationery hen you must drive within you limits and I did that."

The Notes

• Alesi spins into the gravel trap but is able to continue, early in the session. He spins again on his second run. Alesi will most likely use another car tomorrow because the car he qualified in was rebuild after a crash he had during the morning free practice.
• Panis goes wide on a turn a manages to get out of the gravel trap and return to the pits.
• R. Schumacher spins off.
• Coulthard goes through the gravel trap when he had just missed Michael Schumacher and then misses his braking point.
• Katayama spins at the beginning of the start/finish straight.

  • Weather during qualifying: Sunny, some clouds (23 °C)

The Times

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

Villeneuve (Williams-Renault) G M. Schumacher (Ferrari) G Frentzen (Williams-Renault) G Hill (Arrows-Yamaha) B Hakkinen (McLaren-Mercedes) G Coulthard (McLaren-Mercedes) G Irvine (Ferrari) G Berger (Benetton-Renault) G Panis (Prost-Mugen) B Alesi (Benetton-Renault) G Magnussen (Stewart-Ford) B Barrichello (Stewart-Ford) B Diniz (Arrows-Yamaha) B Herbert (Sauber-Petronas) G Nakano (Prost-Mugen) B R. Schumacher (Jordan-Peugeot) G Fisichella (Jordan-Peugeot) G Katayama (Minardi-Hart) B Fontana (Sauber-Petronas) G Marques (Minardi-Hart) B Salo (Tyrrell-Ford) G Verstappen (Tyrrell-Ford) G 107% rule B: Bridgestone G: Goodyear

1m 21.072s 1m 21.072s 1m 21.072s 1m 21.130s 1m 21.369s 1m 21.476s 1m 21.610s 1m 21.656s 1m 21.735s 1m 22.011s 1m 22.167s 1m 22.222s 1m 22.234s 1m 22.263s 1m 22.351s 1m 22.740s 1m 22.804s 1m 23.281s 1m 23.409s 1m 23.854s 1m 24.222s 1m 24.301s 1m 26.747s

The Quotes

• Villeneuve: "My time is surprising but it's the best way to finish the last qualifying session when you are fighting for the championship. What surprised me most is that I set the time on my first run but pole is vital as it's a just a question of who gets to the finish in front of the other guy."

• M. Schumacher: "On my best lap, I knew I had done a 1m21.0s but I did not know if I was quicker or just behind Jacques. I could not believe it when I saw the computer. It proves we are competing on a high level. Having the two of us on the front row is what I was looking for and I hope we have a good race. As for the first corner, it will depend which one of us makes the best start and not being on pole is not a problem. There is no extra pressure for this race and the preparation for it is just the same as any other, but it is slightly different and a bit more exciting. However, in the car it makes no difference at all. I aborted my third run because I locked up the brakes going into the first corner and ran wide."

• Salo: "On my first flying lap I went wide at the first corner and picked up a lot of dirt on the tyres. The car was well balanced again today and I felt we could make up some more time on the people ahead of us. My last run was definitely the best and I thought we had improved, but the circuit must have got slower by then."

• Herbert: "We made some improvements to the car after this morning's session, which were reflected in our performance this afternoon. On my first two runs I was very aggressive, as I think you should be in qualifying, but it just aggravated the tyres and made the rear end of the car very loose. We made small changes between each run, and another for the third, which proved my fastest. On my last run I felt I was going better still but in the final left-hander the wind was pretty bad and when I felt the car understeering I knew that I'd lost out on a better lap."

• R. Schumacher: "I am surprised we did so badly today because I thought the car did not feel too bad so I do not understand why the gap is so big. The T car had a little more oversteer than my race car but otherwise ran fine. But obviously we were really off the pace today."

• Fisichella: "I think our car is not really suited to this circuit! It felt very slippery in the front and rear and I had a lot of snap oversteering in the low speed corners and in braking into the middle of the corner."