Summary

Schumacher quickest for Ferrari

Michael Schumacher's predictions of being competitive at his favorite Spa-Francorchamps circuit were well founded as the German set the fastest time of the session to head the two McLaren Mercedes of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. Schumacher was quite happy with the handling and balance of his car during the session during which he concentrated on the race set-up. He tried a revised lower downforce rear wing at the end of the session, but traffic prevented him making any conclusions about its performance.

Eddie Irvine was not happy with his car which he claimed he had been fighting all day. He complained of understeer in the medium fast corners, bad balance , a problem with his brake set-up and the difficulty of making the right tyre choice for this race. Both drivers will run the qualifying engines tomorrow, but each with different specifications.

Hakkinen back in business

Thanks to a 20 minute red-flag period, the McLaren team were able to rebuild his damaged chassis from his morning crash and the Finn set the second fastest time of the session a full seven tenth's ahead of his team-mate David Coulthard who claimed that he had no problems with his car during the session.

Hill takes fourth time for Jordan

Damon Hill continued to show impressive form with the Jordan- Mugen Honda this afternoon, the ex-World Champion fourth fastest claiming that they had improved the car in several areas since the morning. He was hampered by an oversteer problem into the slow bus-stop chicane which he claims cost him a much quicker lap time. Ralf Schumacher had a more trouble free session this afternoon to improve to ninth fastest.He had to see the stewards of the meeting after missing the chicane and then almost hitting a Minardi as he rejoined the track.

Frentzen fifth as Villeneuve crashes

A good afternoon of chassis development saw Heinz-Harald Frentzen improve to fifth fastest time of the afternoon for Williams, but all the attention was on his team-mate Jacques Villeneuve who had a huge accident at the exit of the infamous Eau Rouge corner. Villeneuve, who was unhurt in the incident, blamed himself for the crash. "I was too fast and simply lost it. The car got sideways and that was it," said Jacques who added, "It was my best crash to date in an F1 car. These things happen, its quite normal." His car struck the four-deep row of tyre barriers at the top of the hill at over 150 mph and after inspection was revealed to have suffered damaged engine mounts which means rebuilding the car with a new monocoque.

In brief...

Jean Alesi said his car was handling a bit better this afternoon, but still complained of a lack of traction and instability under braking. Johnny Herbert's practice in the second Sauber was cut short by a blow engine. Both Benetton drivers complained of no grip saying that they thought their car was not getting the best out of the tyres. Verstappen had a problem with his Stewart's gearbox. Although Jarno Trulli claimed his car had less understeer this afternoon, Panis was still complaining of too much understeer from his Prost chassis.

Timing

POS DRIVER                NATION    TEAM                        TIME                
  1 Michael Schumacher    GER       Ferrari F300                1:51.895    224.182 km/h
  2 Mika Hakkinen         FIN       McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13     1:51.906    + 0.011    
  3 David Coulthard       GBR       McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13     1:52.629    + 0.734    
  4 Damon Hill            GBR       Jordan-Mugen-Honda 198      1:53.100    + 1.205    
  5 Heinz-Harald Frentzen GER       Williams-Mecachrome FW20    1:53.534    + 1.639    
  6 Jacques Villeneuve    CAN       Williams-Mecachrome FW20    1:53.589    + 1.694    
  7 Eddie Irvine          GBR       Ferrari F300                1:53.601    + 1.706    
  8 Jean Alesi            FRA       Sauber-Petronas C17         1:53.660    + 1.765    
  9 Ralf Schumacher       GER       Jordan-Mugen-Honda 198      1:54.116    + 2.221    
 10 Johnny Herbert        GBR       Sauber-Petronas C17         1:54.130    + 2.235    
 11 Alexander Wurz        AUT       Benetton-Mecachrome B198    1:54.158    + 2.263    
 12 Giancarlo Fisichella  ITA       Benetton-Mecachrome B198    1:54.171    + 2.276    
 13 Rubens Barrichello    BRA       Stewart-Ford SF2            1:54.433    + 2.538    
 14 Jarno Trulli          ITA       Prost-Peugeot AP01          1:54.878    + 2.983    
 15 Olivier Panis         FRA       Prost-Peugeot AP01          1:55.182    + 3.287    
 16 Jos Verstappen        NED       Stewart-Ford SF2            1:55.263    + 3.368    
 17 Mika Salo             FIN       Arrows A19                  1:55.730    + 3.835    
 18 Toranosuke Takagi     JPN       Tyrrell-Ford 026            1:56.080    + 4.185    
 19 Pedro Diniz           BRA       Arrows A19                  1:56.431    + 4.536    
 20 Ricardo Rosset        BRA       Tyrrell-Ford 026            1:57.014    + 5.119    
 21 Sinji Nakano          JPN       Minardi-Ford M198           1:57.682    + 5.787    
 22 Esteban Tuero         ARG       Minardi-Ford M198           1:58.178    + 6.283    
                                                                                       
    Friday Practice 107%                                        1:59.728    + 7.833    

All timing is unofficial

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