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| Austrian
GP - Qualifying Session
Michael Schumacher grabs pole position for the Austrian GP ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher. Rubens Barrichello is 4th ahead of Jarno Trulli and Nick Heidfeld. David Coulthard, Mika Hakkinen, Kimi Raikkonen and Olivier Panis make the top 10. Interesting order! A near miss as Verstappen spins, Michael Schumacher almost hits him and has to go off into the gravel. 60 min: David Coulthard improves to 7th. Not very impressive! 59 min: Final minute and only the Williams can take pole from Michael Schumacher. 58 min: Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher finally on the track with 2 minutes to go. Michael Schumacher doesn't improve on his first flying lap of his last run. 57 min: Irvine improves to 13th with a time of 1:11.632. Hakkinen on a flyer on his last run. 56 min: Barrichello was very quick on the first 2 sectors but makes a mistake on the 3rd and doesn't improve. The best he'll qualify from is 4th. Coulthard and Michael Schumacher on track. 55 min: Mika Hakkinen on track. 54 min: Rubens Barrichello out on his final run. 53 min: Villeneuve is the only driver on track and is struggling in 12th. 51 min: Top 10 - M Schumacher, Montoya, R Schumacher, Barrichello, Trulli, Heidfeld, Hakkinen, Raikkonen, Coulthard and Panis. 49 min: Ralf Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello abort their runs as well. The last 10 minutes will be thrilling! 48 min: Juan Pablo Montoya doesn't improve, Coulthard aborts his lap, he is down in 9th! 46 min: David Coulthard and Juan Pablo Montoya go out on their 3rd run. Ralf Schumacher follows! 45 min: Neither improve on this this run. 43 min: Hakkinen slows on his first lap after making a mistake. Michael Schumacher slow on his first lap as well! 42 min: Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen had 1 run each with 2 flying laps. (4 laps in total). They both go out on track again. 41 min: Rubens Barrichello stays in 4th place with a time of 1:09.786. McLaren are not shaping so far (7th and 9th). 40 min: Rubens Barrichello on a flyer. 39 min: Top 10 - M Schumacher, Montoya, R Schumacher, Barrichello, Trulli, Heidfeld, Hakkinen, Raikkonen, Coulthard and Panis. 39 min: Juan Pablo Montoya takes 2nd from his team-mate with a time of 1:09.686! 38 min: Ralf Schumacher goes 2nd with a time of 1:09.769. 37 min: Coulthard moves into 8th while Villeneuve in 11th. 36 min: David Coulthard back on track after aborting his first run and so is Villeneuve. 35 min: Michael Schumacher takes provisional pole with a 1:09.562! 34 min: Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher go for a 2nd flying lap. 34 min: Mika Hakkinen sets the 5th fastest time with a 1:10.515. Michael Schumacher in 14th. He slowed down on his fast lap. 33 min: Rubens Barrichello takes provisional pole with a 1:10.162. 32 min: Top 6 - Trulli, R Schumacher, Raikkonen, Montoya, Heidfeld and Panis. 31 min: Jarno Trulli goes fastest with a time of 1:10.202. The times are getting faster. 30 min: Ralf Schumacher takes provisional pole with a time of 1:10.376. Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher on track. 29 min: Montoya grabs provisional pole with a time of 1:10.628. 28 min: Jean Alesi spins. Montoya very fast. 27 min: Top 4 - Bernoldi, Burti, Fisichella and Button. A lot of cars are on the track! 26 min: David Coulthard and Juan Pablo Montoya on track. 25 min: Giancarlo Fisichella and Eddie Irvine on track. 24 min: Tarso Marques spun and is stuck in the gravel. He needs to get the spare. Burti sets a time of 1:14.064. 23 min: Enrique Bernoldi sets a time of 1:12.937 as Villeneuve goes off the track but recovers. 22 min: Jenson Button also out on the track. Luciano Burti and Jacques Villeneuve join him 21 min: Finally Enrique Bernoldi is the first out on the track after 21 minutes. 20 min: 40 minutes to go with not a single lap time. Not even Minardi have gone out. 17 min: No cars out yet. The session will become very busy in the second half hour! 15 min: Jean Alesi and Luciano Burti from the Prost team get into their cars. So does Jenson Button. 14 min: No cars out yet. Juan Pablo Montoya is not even in his racing overalls! 12 min: Almost all the drivers spun or went off the track during the practice session. They were all testing the limits if their cars on this track. 10 min: Panis is still in the BAR garage. David Coulthard jumps into his car getting ready. 8 min: Olivier Panis is in the BAR car. Could be a sign that he is going out. 6 min: There are a few clouds in the sky but the sun is shining and the track temperature is going up. It has now reached 30 degrees. (Air temperature is at 18 degrees) 4 min: It is expected that one of the slower teams will have to go out and lay some rubber down before the fast teams go out. 3 min: No cars out yet. Qualifying session underway with no action on the track. Expect a slow start to the session with the teams not prepared to go out early as each driver is only allowed 12 laps. Rain is forecast later in the day and the threat of rain during the session is unlikely. Session starting in 2 minutes. Hakkinen's Pole time of last year (1:10.410) has already been beaten by the top 3 teams (McLaren, Ferrari and Williams). Pole time this year could well be in the low 1:09's. The team-mates are also expected to be very close here unless one runs into problems. Session starting in 4 minutes. The lap times drop significantly as more rubber is laid on the track. This will be a challenge for the drivers who will prefer to stay as late as possible to do their qualifying run. They will risk yellow flags and traffic. Expect to see a lot of traffic in the final minutes of the session. Session starting in 6 minutes. McLaren and Ferrari have been very close during the practice sessions. Williams is not too far behind while Jordan, BAR and Sauber look strong. Qualifying looks to be pretty tight. Session starting in 10 minutes. Session starting at 1:00 PM local time. That is 11:00 AM GMT, click here for the local time in Austria now.
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