Schumacher fastest despite troubled session

It was a troubled session for Scuderia-Ferrari Marlboro driver Michael Schumacher this morning, the German starting late while the team cured an hydraulic leak. When he did get out he took only three flying laps with a new set of tyres to set what was to be the fastest time of the session, but further attempts at quick laps saw him have a couple of trips across the chicane when he locked up his front brakes and another minor 'off' at the Spoon curve when he locked his brakes into the corner. he was still not entirely happy with his car's set-up, but is still hoping to keep the upper hand in the all important qualifying session. Eddie Irvine was back in ninth place after losing a lot of time with an exhaust problem. Both drivers were running special qualifying engines today.

Coulthard heads Hakkinen for second and third

David Coulthard took the fastest time of the two McLaren drivers right behind Schumacher's time this morning. The Scot is now a lot happier with the handling of his car this morning after more overnight set-up changes. Hakkinen had no complaints about his car and looked to be heading for the fastest time of the session just before the flag when he made a mistake at the chicane which lost his 7/10th's of a second advantage on that lap up to that point. He ended up third fastest just behind Coulthard.

Williams fourth and fifth

Heinz-Harald Frentzen remained fourth fastest for the Williams team after making steady progress on the set-up during the session. Jacques Villeneuve made changes to his car since yesterday, but found it no better. He changed the car again during the session and made better progress, but was still a second off Frentzen's times on his best lap.

Jordan sixth and seventh

It was the two Jordan drivers behind the Williams boys, Ralf Schumacher sixth fastest despite abandoning his car at the chicane when he spun off trying to avoid hitting the back of Alesi's Sauber which in turn was slowed up by Coulthard going slowly in the McLaren. "They took me by surprise and I had steer the car off the road otherwise I would have hit Alesi from behind," said Schumacher who was otherwise delighted with his Jordan with which he reckoned he could have been much higher up this morning. Hill reckoned he could have also been higher up, but spoiled his best lap when he was almost a second up when he cut across the chicane.

In brief...

The Benetton team changed the stiffness of their cars and rear wing settings, although the drivers were still not happy with their overall grip at this track. Fisichella was eighth fastest despite a high speed off over one of the gravel traps. Wurz was 12th fastest trying both hard and soft tyres during the session. Fisichella stayed on soft.

While Panis improved to tenth fastest in the "standard" Prost chassis, Trulli switched to the 1999 prototype car with the A18 engine and different gearbox but was only 19th quickest. "We still have a lot of work to do on the set-up," said Alain Prost.