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GP - Qualifying:
Ralf Schumacher grabs his first pole position of his career just 0.01 seconds ahead of his brother Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard. Hakkinen, Trulli, Montoya, Frentzen, Barrichello, Heidfeld and Villeneuve make the top 10. 60 min: Jarno Trulli impressive in 5th! 60 min: Mika Hakkinen doesn't improve and neither does Ralf. 59 min: David Coulthard takes 3rd in the final minute despite locking up. His time is a 1:13.186 59 min: Nick Heidfeld moves into 9th ahead of the 2 BAR's. 58 min: David Coulthard starts his flying lap. 57 min: David Coulthard on the track and so is Ralf Schumacher. 56 min: Montoya doesn't improve, he remains in 5th. Barrichello improves but remains in 8th. No more laps for Barrichello. 55 min: Montoya on his final run as well as Frentzen and Panis. 54 min: Jacques Villeneuve moves up to 9th and also runs out of laps. 54 min: Michael Schumacher improves but remains in 2nd. His time is 1:12.999. He is just 0.01 seconds slower than Ralf. Michael is out of laps now. 54 min: Michael Schumacher quick on the first sector. 53 min: Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher start their flying laps. 52 min: Michael Schumacher on the track for his final run and so is Villeneuve. They want to avoid the traffic of the last few minutes. 51 min: Eddie Irvine starts his final run. He is in 11th at this stage. 50 min: All the drivers have completed 3 runs. 1 run remaining. 49 min: Jarno Trulli up in 6th ahead of Frentzen and more importantly Barrichello!! 48 min: Ralf Schumacher aborts his flying lap as he was not improving. 47 min: Ralf Schumacher on his third run and so is Montoya. 47 min: Top 10 - R Schumacher, M Schumacher, Hakkinen, Coulthard, Montoya, Coulthard, Frentzen, Barrichello, Trulli, Panis and Villeneuve. 46 min: Both Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen fail to improve! 45 min: David Coulthard improves to 4th with a time of 1:13.332. 45 min: David Coulthard losing time on the middle sector. 44 min: David Coulthard starts his flying lap. 43 min: Coulthard, Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher start their 3rd runs! 42 min: Burti spins and aborts his flying lap. 42 min: Only Burti and Alonso are on the track. 41 min: Button is ahead of Fisichella and they are both higher up than they have been in the past. Button is 16th and Fisichella is 17th. 40 min: Eddie Irvine spins again and aborts his flying lap. 39 min: Pole will be between Ralf and Michael. They are very close! Eddie Irvine is back on the track in the spare car. 38 min: Top 10 - R Schumacher, M Schumacher, Hakkinen, Montoya, Coulthard, Frentzen, Barrichello, Trulli, Villeneuve, Panis. 38 min: Jacques Villeneuve moves into 9th with a time of 1:14.196. 37 min: David Coulthard improves his time but remains in 5th with a time of 1:13.658. 36 min: Mika Hakkinen moves into 3rd with a time of 1:13.268. Coulthard on track 36 min: Michael Schumacher remains in 2nd just 0.076 seconds behind his brother. 35 min: Michael Schumacher on the track but his first sector is slower than Ralf. Coulthard also on track. 34 min: Rubens Barrichello moves into 6th but he is 0.9 seconds off the pace. 33 min: Top 10 - R Schumacher, M Schumacher, Montoya, Coulthard, Frentzen, Trulli, Hakkinen, Panis, Irvine and Heidfeld. 32 min: Ralf Schumacher takes provisional pole with a stunning time of 1:12.989. He is now over half a second faster than Michael! 31 min: Juan Pablo Montoya moves into 3rd just 0.051 behind Michael Schumacher! 31 min: Juan Pablo Montoya very quick! 30 min: Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya on their 2nd runs. Panis improves to 7th. 29 min: Top 10 - M Schumacher, R Schumacher, Coulthard, Trulli, Hakkinen, Montoya, Irvine, Frentzen, Heidfeld and Panis. 28 min: Jean Alesi spins but recovers!, he abort his flying lap. 27 min: The top 3 are separated by just 0.152 seconds. It will be very close fight for Pole today. 26 min: Nick Heidfeld moves into 9th on his 2nd run. 25 min: Mika Hakkinen sets the 5th fastest time with a time of 1:14.211. He had to slow down due to Irvine's spin into the gravel. 24 min: Mika Hakkinen finally emerges on the track while Eddie Irvine who is currently in 6th is off and into the gravel. 23 min: Top 10 - M Schumacher, R Schumacher, Coulthard, Trulli, Montoya, Irvine, Frentzen, Panis, Barrichello and Villeneuve. 22 min: Michael Schumacher takes provisional pole with a 1:13.574. That is only 0.048 seconds ahead of Ralf! 22 min: David Coulthard 2nd with a time of 1:13.726. 21 min: Barrichello aborts his lap as he cuts across the chicane.! 21 min: Barrichello is also on the track for his second run and he is not very fast! 20 min: Michael Schumacher, David Coulthard and Juan Pablo Montoya are on the track! 19 min: Top 10 - R Schumacher, Irvine, Frentzen, Panis, Barrichello, Villeneuve, Heidfeld, Raikkonen, Burti and Verstappen. 18 min: Heinz Harald Frentzen moves into 3rd with a 1:14.615. 18 min: Ralf Schumacher takes provisional pole positions with a time of 1:13.622. Impressive. 17 min: Ralf Schumacher starts his flying lap. 17 min: Kimi Raikkonen clocks the 6th fastest with a time of 1:15.085. 16 min: Ralf Schumacher and Heinz Harald Frentzen are on their out laps. 15 min: Olivier Panis takes 2nd ahead of Barrichello with a time of 1:14.694! 14 min: Luciano Burti moves into 5th place with a time of 1:15.474. Panis and Raikkonen on track. 13 min: Nick Heidfeld moves into 4th with a time of 1:14.881. 13 min: Top 6 - Irvine, Barrichello, Villeneuve, Verstappen, Alesi and Alonso 12 min: Eddie Irvine goes 1st with a 1:14.441. Impressive ahead of Barrichello! 12 min: Jacques Villeneuve goes 2nd with a time of 1:14.833 11 min: Jacques Villeneuve and Eddie Irvine on the track. 10 min: Rubens Barrichello sets a time of 1:14.741 and takes provisional pole. His best time this morning was 1:14.515 9 min: Fernando Alonso and Enrique Bernoldi are also on the track. 8 min: Current order - Verstappen ahead of Alesi. Rubens Barrichello on the track. This is early for a Ferrari! 7 min: Jos Verstappen sets a time of 1:16.109 and takes provisional pole. His best time this morning was 1:15.829 6 min: Jean Alesi sets a time of 1:16.203. His best time this morning was 1:15.750 5 min: Jean Alesi is the first man out on the track. He is followed by Jos Verstappen 4 min: No cars have come out yet. The first 10 to 15 minutes of a qualifying session are usually quiet especially if the weather is not expected to change dramatically. 1 min: Panis is getting ready in his car but it is unlikely that he will go out soon. Session underway but it is quiet at the moment. It is not expected that anyone will go out very soon. Michael Schumacher's fastest time so far this weekend is 1.9 seconds faster than pole. Expect pole time this year to be even faster. Qualifying in 2 minutes Behind the top 6 cars (3 teams), a more intense battle will be between Sauber, Jordan and BAR with Jaguar possibly challenging for a better position than 13th. Again this is affected by how well the Michelin tyres perform on the Jaguar. Qualifying in 10 minutes It looks like qualifying will be between Michael Schumacher and his brother. David Coulthard might also get close. Behind those 3 expect to see Mika Hakkinen, Rubens Barrichello and Juan Pablo Montoya although if the Michelin tyres perform favourably in the heat then Montoya could challenge for pole. Qualifying in 15 minutes Qualifying starts at 1:00 PM local time under sunny weather conditions. The temperature is 26 degrees |