Schumacher takes another pole

Michael Schumacher scored his third consecutive pole of the season for this all important final race in Japan, although he played down its importance. "It's nice to have the pole, but it's tomorrow that counts," said Schumacher. "Despite the big change to the cars, my time is almost the same as last year's time which says a lot for the fantastic work the team and especially Goodyear have done in the past few weeks," he added.

"The car has been good right from the start of practice. I didn't have a lot to do to get the set-up just right. We have done so much running the last few weeks we knew exactly what we wanted," explained Michael for his lack of track time so far this weekend which he said didn't really affect his performance. He was in fact even faster on his final run, but got a message over the radio to back off when his rival Hakkinen messed up his final run and had no chance of taking the pole from the Scuderia-Ferrari Marlboro team.

Eddie Irvine only did 8 laps during qualifying, the team not bothering to send him out on his final run due to a "lack of speed" from his car which they were not going to solve in the session in order to improve his lap time enough. He ended up fourth almost two seconds slower than his team-mate.

McLaren the meat in the Ferrari sandwich

Mika Hakkinen's mistake on his final run prevented any chance of taking the pole from his rival Michael Schumacher. "I slid wide and over the grass, so it spoiled my lap, which was a shame as I was quicker at that time and the car was handling perfectly," he said. David Coulthard took the third fastest time to head the second row of the grid , but was disappointed to be a full second slower than his team-mate. "My car was handling a lot better than yesterday, but I couldn't match Mika's times," he said.

Frentzen a furious fifth

Heinz Harald Frentzen was the "best of the rest" for Williams with the fifth fastest time, but was upset and reckoned he could have claimed fourth but for Ralf Schumacher, who blocked him deliberately on his fastest lap. "I was a tenth of a second faster when Ralf Blocked me. I had to go off line and got dirt on my tyres which put me off on the next corner," said Frentzen, who returned his Williams to the pits minus a front wing and other damage after a high speed trip across the gravel trap. Villeneuve will start next to him in sixth place, the Canadian still not happy with the balance of his car.

Jordan share row four

Ralf Schumacher and Damon Hill were sharing the fourth row for Jordan, both drivers happy with their cars, but complaining they were losing all their time at the final slow chicane.

In brief...

Both Benetton drivers complained of understeer in the fast corners and oversteer in the slow, Fisichella going off through a sand trap which saw Wurz in ninth spot and himself on the outside of row 5. Sauber took row 6, Herbert ahead of Alesi who ran out of fuel after the flag. Prost shared row 7, Panis just ahead of Trulli who was lacking grip with the new AP01B chassis with the development 1999 A18 Peugeot engine. Riccardo Rosset's last race for Tyrrell was a disappointment for him, he went off on his first flying lap and failed to qualify.

Timing

POS  DRIVER          NATION   TEAM                 TIME                   
 1.  M.SCHUMACHER    GER      Ferrari              1:36.293   219.231 km/h
 2.  M.HAKKINEN      FIN      McLaren Mercedes     1:36.471   + 0.178     
 3.  D.COULTHARD     GBR      McLaren Mercedes     1:37.496   + 1.203     
 4.  E.IRVINE        GBR      Ferrari              1:38.197   + 1.904     
 5.  H.H.FRENTZEN    GER      Williams Mecachro    1:38.272   + 1.979     
 6.  J.VILLENEUVE    CAN      Williams Mecachro    1:38.448   + 2.155     
 7.  R.SCHUMACHER    GER      Jordan Mugen-Hond    1:38.461   + 2.168     
 8.  D.HILL          GBR      Jordan Mugen-Hond    1:38.603   + 2.310     
 9.  A.WURZ          AUT      Benetton Playlife    1:38.959   + 2.666     
10.  G.FISICHELLA    ITA      Benetton Playlife    1:39.080   + 2.787     
11.  J.HERBERT       GBR      Sauber Petronas      1:39.234   + 2.941     
12.  J.ALESI         FRA      Sauber Petronas      1:39.448   + 3.155     
13.  O.PANIS         FRA      Prost Peugeot        1:40.037   + 3.744     
14.  J.TRULLI        ITA      Prost Peugeot        1:40.111   + 3.818     
15.  M.SALO          FIN      Arrows TWR           1:40.387   + 4.094     
16.  R.BARRICHELLO   BRA      Stewart Ford         1:40.502   + 4.209     
17.  T.TAKAGI        JPN      Tyrrell Ford         1:40.619   + 4.326     
18.  P.DINIZ         BRA      Arrows TWR           1:40.687   + 4.394     
19.  J.VERSTAPPEN    NED      Stewart Ford         1:40.943   + 4.650     
20.  S.NAKANO        JPN      Minardi Ford         1:41.315   + 5.022     
21.  E.TUERO         ARG      Minardi Ford         1:42.358   + 6.065     

107% time: 1:43.034

Not Qualified: R.ROSSET  BRA  Tyrrell Ford         1:43.259   + 6.966  

Temperature: air 20-22C   track  30-34C
   
All timing is unofficial

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