Summary
Schumacher quickest for Ferrari
Michael Schumacher's predictions of being competitive at his favorite Spa-Francorchamps circuit were well founded as the German set the fastest time of the session to head the two McLaren Mercedes of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. Schumacher was quite happy with the handling and balance of his car during the session during which he concentrated on the race set-up. He tried a revised lower downforce rear wing at the end of the session, but traffic prevented him making any conclusions about its performance.
Eddie Irvine was not happy with his car which he claimed he had been fighting all day. He complained of understeer in the medium fast corners, bad balance , a problem with his brake set-up and the difficulty of making the right tyre choice for this race. Both drivers will run the qualifying engines tomorrow, but each with different specifications.
Hakkinen back in business
Thanks to a 20 minute red-flag period, the McLaren team were able to rebuild his damaged chassis from his morning crash and the Finn set the second fastest time of the session a full seven tenth's ahead of his team-mate David Coulthard who claimed that he had no problems with his car during the session.
Hill takes fourth time for Jordan
Damon Hill continued to show impressive form with the Jordan- Mugen Honda this afternoon, the ex-World Champion fourth fastest claiming that they had improved the car in several areas since the morning. He was hampered by an oversteer problem into the slow bus-stop chicane which he claims cost him a much quicker lap time. Ralf Schumacher had a more trouble free session this afternoon to improve to ninth fastest.He had to see the stewards of the meeting after missing the chicane and then almost hitting a Minardi as he rejoined the track.
Frentzen fifth as Villeneuve crashes
A good afternoon of chassis development saw Heinz-Harald Frentzen improve to fifth fastest time of the afternoon for Williams, but all the attention was on his team-mate Jacques Villeneuve who had a huge accident at the exit of the infamous Eau Rouge corner. Villeneuve, who was unhurt in the incident, blamed himself for the crash. "I was too fast and simply lost it. The car got sideways and that was it," said Jacques who added, "It was my best crash to date in an F1 car. These things happen, its quite normal." His car struck the four-deep row of tyre barriers at the top of the hill at over 150 mph and after inspection was revealed to have suffered damaged engine mounts which means rebuilding the car with a new monocoque.
In brief...
Jean Alesi said his car was handling a bit better this afternoon, but still complained of a lack of traction and instability under braking. Johnny Herbert's practice in the second Sauber was cut short by a blow engine. Both Benetton drivers complained of no grip saying that they thought their car was not getting the best out of the tyres. Verstappen had a problem with his Stewart's gearbox. Although Jarno Trulli claimed his car had less understeer this afternoon, Panis was still complaining of too much understeer from his Prost chassis.
Timing
POS DRIVER NATION TEAM TIME 1 Michael Schumacher GER Ferrari F300 1:51.895 224.182 km/h 2 Mika Hakkinen FIN McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13 1:51.906 + 0.011 3 David Coulthard GBR McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13 1:52.629 + 0.734 4 Damon Hill GBR Jordan-Mugen-Honda 198 1:53.100 + 1.205 5 Heinz-Harald Frentzen GER Williams-Mecachrome FW20 1:53.534 + 1.639 6 Jacques Villeneuve CAN Williams-Mecachrome FW20 1:53.589 + 1.694 7 Eddie Irvine GBR Ferrari F300 1:53.601 + 1.706 8 Jean Alesi FRA Sauber-Petronas C17 1:53.660 + 1.765 9 Ralf Schumacher GER Jordan-Mugen-Honda 198 1:54.116 + 2.221 10 Johnny Herbert GBR Sauber-Petronas C17 1:54.130 + 2.235 11 Alexander Wurz AUT Benetton-Mecachrome B198 1:54.158 + 2.263 12 Giancarlo Fisichella ITA Benetton-Mecachrome B198 1:54.171 + 2.276 13 Rubens Barrichello BRA Stewart-Ford SF2 1:54.433 + 2.538 14 Jarno Trulli ITA Prost-Peugeot AP01 1:54.878 + 2.983 15 Olivier Panis FRA Prost-Peugeot AP01 1:55.182 + 3.287 16 Jos Verstappen NED Stewart-Ford SF2 1:55.263 + 3.368 17 Mika Salo FIN Arrows A19 1:55.730 + 3.835 18 Toranosuke Takagi JPN Tyrrell-Ford 026 1:56.080 + 4.185 19 Pedro Diniz BRA Arrows A19 1:56.431 + 4.536 20 Ricardo Rosset BRA Tyrrell-Ford 026 1:57.014 + 5.119 21 Sinji Nakano JPN Minardi-Ford M198 1:57.682 + 5.787 22 Esteban Tuero ARG Minardi-Ford M198 1:58.178 + 6.283 Friday Practice 107% 1:59.728 + 7.833 All timing is unofficial
FIA Links