Summary

It was close today between the two McLaren drivers. David Coulthard came out on top with just 7 hundreds of a second in front of Mika Hakkinen. Michael Schumacher came close as well as Giancarlo Fisichella. The Williams due made progress with the new car but could not really impress.

Notes

• The new Williams car did not bring the leap forward that was excepted. Race engineer of Williams Jock Clear even stated before this weekend: "It's just a new package of items, bodywork and that sort of thing," he said. "Things did go very well for us in testing last week in Monza. There was nothing unrealistic about the times we were doing. I think we're expecting to be in a position to really pressure the McLaren.
• Honda is planning an early return. According to a German magazine they will enter next season with a chassis build by the Italian company Dalara.
• Barrichello had an engine problem and stopped on the circuit.
  • Weather during qualifying: Cloudy (15 Degrees C)

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

Coulthard (McLaren-Mercedes) B Hakkinen (McLaren-Mercedes) B M. Schumacher (Ferrari) G Fisichella (Benetton-Playlife) B R. Schumacher (Jordan-Mugen) G Villeneuve (Winfield-Williams) G Frentzen (Winfield-Williams) G Irvine (Ferrari) G Alesi (Sauber-Petronas) G Hill (Jordan-Mugen) G Wurz (Benetton-Playlife) B Herbert (Sauber-Petronas) G Barrichello (Stewart-Ford) B Trulli (Prost-Peugeot) B Panis (Prost-Peugeot) B Takagi (Tyrrell-Ford) G Salo (Arrows) B Nakano (Minardi-Ford) B Diniz (Arrows) B Magnussen (Stewart-Ford) B Tuero (Minardi-Ford) B Rosset (Tyrrell-Ford)B 107% rule B: Bridgestone G: Goodyear

1m 18.213s 1m 18.282s 1m 18.497s 1m 18.826s 1m 19.242s 1m 19.588s 1m 19.614s 1m 19.616s 1m 19.693s 1m 19.717s 1m 19.765s 1m 19.845s 1m 19.953s 1m 20.188s 1m 20.303s 1m 20.328s 1m 20.536s 1m 21.230s 1m 21.301s 1m 21.629s 1m 21.822s 1m 21.824s 1m 23.688s

The Quotes

• Coulthard: "I was of the mind that it could go either way. Our two cars are the same. And although I wouldn't say we haven't found the perfect setup for this circuit yet, we have got some of the problems solved. Pole position was down to whoever got the tidier lap, and today it was me."

• Hakkinen: "Michael was going extremely quickly today, but by the end of the day he was not able to match exactly the times that we were doing and he was still behind us. It was certainly going quite well for us, but I guess that David was the quickest guy today. He did some really good work, it was fantastic."

• M. Schumacher: "I am happy, mainly because I am only two tenths of a second behind the pole, It is a long time since we have been this close. Goodyear has done a very good job and given us a good tyre. You can see this is not just from our performance but also from that of some of the other Goodyear runners. I think the cold weather has the same effect for Goodyear and the others, so this should not be a factor in the race. I made a few small changes to the car during the session, but we did not have to do much as we have worked well on the set-up over the past two days. I must congratulate the team on doing a good job. We have some ideas about the strategy for the race and I am fairly optimistic."