Summary

Johnny Herbert topped today's times at the free practice for the Monaco Grand Prix. He clocked a fastest time of 1m 21.188s. Michael Schumacher was second in the Ferrari with a time of 1m 21.330s.

Damon Hill ended on an excellent ninth spot.

Notes

• The Monaco track has been revised and resurfaced at some parts, the track is now 3.3 metres longer.
• Frentzen was fastest in the morning session with a time of 1m 23.187s. Michael Schumacher was second with Mika Hakkinen third. Damon Hill drove his Arrows into the top ten with a ninth time.
• Katayama's Minardi brakes down in the tunnel. The session is stopped for a few minutes. Katayama fails to drive within the 107 % rule time of 1m 26.871s.
• Frentzen crashes into the barriers in the last corner before the start and finish straight.
  • Weather during session: Sunny (16 Degrees)

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

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

1m 21.188s 1m 21.330s 1m 21.445s 1m 21.463s 1m 21.573s 1m 21.675s 1m 21.885s 1m 21.939s 1m 21.962s 1m 22.010s 1m 22.020s 1m 22.073s 1m 22.370s 1m 22.383s 1m 22.622s 1m 23.056s 1m 23.096s 1m 23.483s 1m 23.810s 1m 25.178s 1m 25.530s 1m 26.871s 1m 39.353s

The Quotes

• Herbert: "It was a good moment for me and I hope I can have another like that on Saturday. We did a lot of work on the set-up of the car in testing at Barcelona last week and that is paying off now."

• Schumacher: "Qualifying will be very close on Saturday, because you only have to lose a little time in one section and you can slip out of the top ten. There is bound to be more to come from the Williams and we will also have to see what the others can do. I would like to be optimistic for the race, but at the moment my car is not perfectly balanced and I do not know how much we can improve when compared to the others."

• Irvine: "I had no problems today and just tried different set-ups. All in all the car is not too bad. What surprised me was that new tyres made a difference but they only seemed to be at their best for one lap. On what should have been a quick lap I also made a mistake in the third sector. It is fun to drive here and it just takes a couples of runs to get used to the place. For Saturday, I can aim for a place on the front three rows of the grid."

• Verstappen: "The Car feels OK, although we still have some work to do, but overall the set up is more to my liking following last week's test. We have made progress today which is good news and the fact that my time is so close to that of pole gives us cause for optimism. We must improve the traction so that we can qualify well on Saturday."

• Salo: "I had a lot of oversteer this morning and that meant that I had to lift off going through the tunnel which obviously cost me some speed. It did get better in the afternoon and there is plenty of time before qualifying so I hope that we can cure the problem and be ready for Saturday."