Summary

Eddie Irvine is going fast after his second place during the Argentine Grand Prix two weeks ago. He clocked the fastest time of the day with a 1m 25.981s just ahead of his team-mate Michael Schumacher, who had been fastest all day. Berger was third.

Notes

• The two metre high bronze statue of Ayrton Senna made by the 33 year old Italian Stefano Pierotti, was revealed today. The statue got a spot very close to the Tamburello corner, where Senna dramatically crashed and died of his injuries.
  provided by Carlos Lefebre Franco from the Netherlands.
• It was announced today that the French Grand Prix will go ahead as planned. The Grand Prix was put on the race calendar provisionally because of a dispute on television broadcasting rights. The dispute is now settled. A FIA statement said: "The difficulties surrounding access to the French Grand Prix by unauthorised television crews have been resolved and the event is now confirmed as a round of the 1997 FIA Formula One world championship."
• Former Formula One World Champion Niki Lauda had a kidney transplant. He had been suffering from a chronic kidney inflammation for some time. He received the kidney from his younger brother Florian. He had asked the doctors to keep it quiet until the doctors were sure of a successful outcome. Both men still need to remain in hospital but are stable.

• The Minardi team will use a different rear wing and wing plates. For Qualifying they will use an updated Hart V8 engine.
• All drivers within the 107% rule time of 1m 32.000s

• Weather during session: Dry

Irvine (Ferrari) M. Schumacher (Ferrari) Berger (Benetton) Alesi (Benetton) Villeneuve (Williams) Coulthard (McLaren) Frentzen (Williams) Barrichello (Stewart) Panis (Prost) Larini (Sauber) Herbert (Sauber) Hakkinen (McLaren) Hill (Arrows) Fisichella (Jordan) R. Schumacher (Jordan) Magnussen (Stewart) Nakano (Prost) Salo (Tyrrell) Diniz (Arrows) Verstappen (Tyrrell) Katayama (Minardi) Trulli (Minardi) 107% rule

1m 25.981s 1m 25.997s 1m 26.259s 1m 26.382s 1m 26.499s 1m 26.549s 1m 26.600s 1m 26.679s 1m 26.779s 1m 26.831s 1m 26.842s 1m 27.184s 1m 27.334s 1m 27.612s 1m 28.091s 1m 28.117s 1m 29.021s 1m 29.087s 1m 29.117s 1m 29.736s 1m 29.974s 1m 30.820s 1m 32.000s