The weather wasn't looking too good. It was overcast, there were extremely large black thunderclouds hanging around over the hills, and the met-men gave a 50% chance of rain. It looked like the race could be interesting.

When the green light went on, everyone went out, and everyone bar Montermini came back in again, only running installation laps. Thus we had the strange sight of a Forti heading the time sheets for five minutes. In the pits, meanwhile, Brundle had switched to his spare car, which was in the old mustard yellow colour rather than the new gold one. Brundle only ran an installation lap before coming back in again. All the lead teams except Williams had brought two spare-cars with them this weekend rather than one, mindful of the start-line pile-ups which frequently occur.

Drivers started to emerge for serious runs, rather than just installation laps, and Hakkinen and Hill were the first to post competitive times, Hill setting a 1:27.776, Hakkinen a 1:27.894. Hakkinen should have been first, but he somehow lost 0.4s over the last third of the lap.

Schumacher then came out, and he obliterated all previous lap times, setting a 1:25.600. Heading out on his next lap he was faster still, although Alesi had the temerity to post 1:25.578. No matter, Schumacher posted a 1:24.955. Also going extremely well was Olivier Panis in third (1:25.926). Hakkinen was fourth (1:26.104) and Coulthard sixth (1:26.449).

Panis wasn't finished, however, setting a 1:25.048, just 0.093s behind Schumacher. Hill then emerged, setting a 1:25.001, but times were rapidly coming down, Irvine, Schumacher and Herbert all going faster, and so did Panis. He really was wound up for this session. Panis was first on 1:24.332, followed by Irvine (+0.591s), Schumacher (+0.623), Herbert (+0.623) and Hill (+0.669).

Schumacher came out again, but couldn't improve on his first flying lap, as he was baulked slightly by a Minardi in the swimming pool section. Hill could though, setting a 1:24.770 for second. The next lap and Schumacher made amends, setting a 1:24.289 for first (-0.043s). Alesi was also trying hard, setting a 1:24.506 (third), dollowed by a 1:24.292 (+0.003s, second). Panis seemed to take this as an affront, so he set a 1:23.860 to retake first. I bet his sponsors were pleased, as he was getting a lot of air time. No-one else really had an answer, the closest being Hakkinen, who set a 1:24.203.

The session so far had been amazingly accident free, but things changed in the last minute. Coming into the Loews hairpin, Alesi (him again.....) clipped the inside curbing with his wheels, flipping him around, blocking the track. Coulthard was following, but managed quite easily to avoid contract. No-one could pass, and four more cars had backed up before Alesi could get away. This proved terminal for Irvine, as he stalled and couldn't get going again. It was also too late for the others to get in another flying lap, as fifteen seconds later, out came the chequered flag.

Warm-Up Times

1 O Panis 1:23.860, 142.866 Kph
2 M Hakkinen 1:24.203
3 M Schumacher 1:24.289
4 J Alesi 1:24.292
5 D Coulthard 1:24.431
6 D Hill 1:24.770
7 M Brundle 1:24.786
8 J Herbert 1:24.826
9 U Katayama 1:24.901
10 E Irvine 1:24.923
11 H Frentzen 1:25.01112 G Berger 1:25.054
13 R Barrichello 1:25.243
14 P Lamy 1:25.422
15 G Fisichella 1:25.463
16 M Salo 1:25.698
17 P Diniz 1:25.934
18 J Villeneuve 1:26.136
19 L Badoer 1:27.126
20 A Montermini 1:28.559
21 J Verstappen 7:13.844
R Rosset no laps

By Darren Galpin