Morning practice positions: 1. Hill (1:21.496 - 0.5s up on 2nd), 2. Coulthard, 3. Schumacher, 4. Hakkinen, 5. Frentzen, 6. Alesi, 7. Berger, 8. Barrichello, 9. Villeneuve, 10. Irvine.

Schumacher had a minor accident in the first of the morning practice sessions. He had gone into St Devote too fast, and had realised that he wasn't going to make it round. Rather than spinning the car, he aimed it head-on at a special water-filled barrier, lifting his hands off the steering wheel before impact. Damage was thus limited to a smashed nose-cone, rather than damaged corners.

When the qualifying session started, the Minardi of Giancarlo Fisichella was first out, followed by Salo (who had had an engine failure in the morning session) and Diniz. Salo's first flyer looked reasonable, but he suddenly backed off, allowing Diniz to pass, thus allowing Fisichella to set the

fastest lap. This wasn't to be for long, Fisichella spinning off, and the Minardi of Lamy setting a 1:24.182 for 1st. Diniz soon beat this, setting a 1:24.088.

The moment of glory for the smaller teams was soon over, as Hill, Villeneuve and Alesi came out for the first time. Villeneuve looked quite smooth, but was 0.5s down on Diniz by the first split at Mirabeau. Hill, by contrast, was smooth but fast, and on his first flyer he set a 1:23.678, and this was on old tyres. On his second flyer he was up to 0.5s faster again, but came upon Riccardo Rosset into the chicane at the tunnel exit. Hill called it a day, and came into the pits.

The other big names were out on new tyres, and the times continued to fall, Alesi going third with a 1:22.730, Hakkinen 2nd and Berger third on 1:22.616, only 3 thousandths slower than his morning practice time. Martin Brundle posted a 1:22.758, an encouraging sixth.

Panis by now was going all out, setting an impressive 1:22.402, moving him up to second. This soon became third as Coulthard managed a 1:22.151, using a revised Mercedes engine with reduced internal friction. About half of the field was out at this point, and the times were continually falling.

Then Schumacher came out, and he didn't mess about. He was 0.363s up at the first split, and the effort showed - his car was twitching everywhere, and he was constantly sawing at the wheel. But he kept it all together, setting a 1:21.351 (-0.800s). But he wasn't finished yet. Pushing even harder, the car grounding and throwing up sparks through the tunnel, he managed a 1:20.912. He came back in. By this time, Irvine was third (1:22.247), Hakkinen fourth (1:22.248) and Panis fifth (1:22.358).

Twenty minutes into the session, and Hill decided it was time to respond. He went out on new tyres this time, and he managed a 1:21.667, second, his car looking by far the best set up. While on his next flyer, lamy went off at the Casino Square exit, losing his front wing, while Badoer went off at the Rascasse with no major damage. The sudden rash of waved yellow's meant that Hill was unable to improve.

Coulthard was the first to take advantage of Hill's misfortune, putting in a 1:21.460, taking second. Seconds later Alesi posted a 1:21.349, before coming into the pits. Irvine was also out, desperately trying to match Schumacher, his lack of testing mileage giving hime problems of confidence with the car. Coming out of St Devote he nudged the barrier on the way to a 1:22.086 and eighth. The car was all over the place compared to Schumacher, the back end twitching under acceleration. On his next lap he nudged the barrier at the swimming pool with his right front, setting a 1:22.712. If he got any closer, he'd be machining parts off his car instead.

Verstappen was the next out for his first qualifying lap, hoping that the gearbox problems from the morning session would not reoccur. He managed a 1:24.211, putting him into 18th place. Schumacher was then back out, and did a brief flying lap of 1:21.266 (-0.354s) for 1st, before coming back in. It was as though he was daring Hill to go faster.

Barrichello did though, setting a 1:21.504 (fourth), following this up with a 1:21.525. He had used all his laps up though, so we wouldn't see him again. Someone else we wouldn't be seeing again was Katayama - he had clipped the barrier turning into the chicane, breaking his wheel - end of session for him.

Forty minutes into the session and Hill reappeared, there being only two cars on the track. Hill pressed quite hard on his out lap, and then went for it, setting a 1:21.431 (third). Villeneuve also came out, but directly in front of Hill. Hill decided to slow down and let Villeneuve pull away, thus

leaving himself with only one lap with which to improve his time. This proved to be a good decision, as Villeneuve was 1.1s down at the 2nd split (tunnel exit), and he could only manage a 1:22.005, eighth.

Hill went for it, and was only fractions down at the first split. Come the second, and the gap was worse - everyone wrote Hill out of the equation. But he wasn't finished yet. Somehow he worked a minor miracle over the last third of the course, obliterating the fastest section time of the day by 0.3s to record a lap time of 1:20.866. He was first, and Schumacher had a fight on his hands. Schumacher actually looked concerned, but he had five laps left, or three flyers. But he was still only 46 thousandths down on Hill.

Alesi, Coulthard and Schumacher were all out, and it was getting tight. Alesi set a 1:21.118 (+0.252, 3rd), followed by a 1:20.918 (+0.052, 3rd). He was on the ragged edge though, the car fish tailing wildly out of the final corner. Schumacher then went even faster, setting a 1:20.356, 0.510, taking first. Nothing against Schumacher, but the end of the session was definitely getting faster - he had been 0.3s down on Hill at the tunnel exit.

With about a minute remaining, out came Berger, the only person left who could conceivably beat Schumacher. On his flying lap, he came upon Schumacher at the tunnel exit, and this unsighted Berger from his braking point. Berger lost it, and disappeared down the escape road backwards at high velocity, luckily avoiding everything. Schumacher later apologised to Berger for causing the accident. But it was still the first pole for Ferrari at Monaco since Jody Scheckter in 1979.

Qualifying results:
1. M.Schumacher 1:20.356, 149.096kph	12. J Verstappen 1:22.327
2. D Hill 1:20.866	13. J Herbert 1:23.346
3. J Alesi 1:20.918	14. O Panis 1:22.358
4. G Berger 1:21.067	15. U Katayama 1:22.460
5. D Coulthard 1:21.460	16. M Brundle 1:22.519
6. R Barrichello 1:21.504	17. P Diniz 1:22.682
7. E Irvine 1:21.542	18. G Fisichella 1:22.684
8. M Hakkinen 1:21.688	19. P Lamy 1:23.350
9. H Frentzen 1:21.929	20. R Rosset 1:24.976
10. J Villeneuve 1:21.963	21. L Badoer 1:25.059
11. M Salo 1:22.235	22. A Montermini 1:25.393