Warm-up, European GP, Nurburgring. Sunday 28th April.
They had all queued up, and went out onto the track. Shumacher, feeling rather racy, quickly passed Hakkinen in the McLaren before coming back into the pits. Initially this was the case with most of them - they would go out, try hard, and come directly back in. Verstappen was on of the few who didn't, and he quickly set the fastest lap (1:23.902).
Schumacher was still trying hard though (does he know the meaning of taking it easy?), the car sliding under braking into several corners. He was still slower than Verstappen.
Hill just used the session as a systems check. His engine, gearbox and radiators had been changed overnight, and he was trying out various wing settings. He was also the first person to beat Verstappen's time, with a 1:21.902 (Verstappen was down to 1:22.352 by this time).
Pedro Lamy's Minardi stopped out on the circuit after some mechanical malady, curtailing his testing. He watched as Schumacher flashed by on a quick run, and he set the fastest time of the session, a 1:21.795. Things were looking good for Ferrari, but they were still two seconds off the qualifying pace. Frentzen was also looking good, having moved up into third place. They were all demoted when Alesi finally exploited the potential of the Renault engine, setting a 1:21.576 on his 7th lap. He followed this up with a 1:21.214 on his 8th. He also hadn't spun it.....yet. He lowered his time to 1:21.025 on his 10th lap.
With five minutes to go, all the big guys came out to play. Hakkinen went second, and then Hill went fastest, the first to get below 1:21 (1:20.998). Schumacher tried too hard, and slid between the two posts on the right hand part of the Veedol Chicane. Verstappen again went faster, this time moving back up to third.
Alesi and Villeneuve tried to improve in the dying
minutes, but only Villeneuve managed to, reaching a disappointing
8th. Patrick Head had tried to persuade him to set his car up
more like Hill's, but it looks like he hadn't succeeded.
Results - Warm-up
| 1 | D.Hill | 1:20.998 | 202.493 kph |
| 2 | J.Alesi | 1:21.025 | |
| 3 | G.Berger | 1:21.349 | |
| 4 | M.Hakkinen | 1:21.380 | |
| 5 | M.Schumacher | 1:21.785 | |
| 6 | J.Verstappen | 1:21.985 | |
| 7 | D.Coulthard | 1:22.125 | |
| 8 | J.Villeneuve | 1:22.198 | |
| 9 | H.Frentzen | 1:22.235 | |
| 10 | M.Brundle | 1:22.400 | |
| 11 | R.Barrichello | 1:22.469 | |
| 12 | O.Panis | 1:22.549 | |
| 13 | M.Salo | 1:22.638 | |
| 14 | E.Irvine | 1:23.105 | |
| 15 | J.Herbert | 1:23.230 | |
| 16 | P.Diniz | 1:23.340 | |
| 17 | U.Katayama | 1:23.354 | |
| 18 | R.Rosset | 1:24.533 | |
| 19 | G.Fisichella | 1:27.022 | |
| 20 | P.Lamy | 1:29.377 |