The early morning session had been hit by rain (09:00-09:30), but two cars had been out trying the new Goodyear Monsoon tyre. Conditions weren't that bad, however, and overall lap times were four seconds slower than those on standard wets. Come afternoon practice though, and the sun was out, and the track was almost dry.

The first two cars out were the Jordan of Rubens Barrichello and the arrows of Jos Verstappen. In the morning warm-up, Verstappen hadn't completed a timed lap, as the team thought the weather sufficiently changeable not to risk sending the car out and sending the set-up of the car in the wrong direction as a result. Barrichello recorded a time of 1:47.341 (9th) in the morning session. Schumacher had been the fastest (1:44.370), followed by Hill 2nd, Berger 3rd, Villeneuve 5th, Alesi 6th (1:46.984), Irvine 7th and Herbert 8th. Both Montermini and Diniz spun in this session, Diniz accelerating too hard out of a corner, and damaging the car.

Verstappen set the benchmark time on his first flying lap, setting a 1:37.341, Barrichello managing a 1:38.961. Salo and Frentzen then emerged, followed a short time later by Jean Alesi. Alesi was financially out of pocket from the previous race, having been fined $10,000 for leaving the circuit before seeing the Clerk of the Course regarding his accident with Salo. Benetton were also find $10,000 for letting him go early.

Salo was soon into his stride, setting a 1:35.327 on his first flying lap. On his next, he lost it on the exit of Tosa, but span it back into the correct direction, only losing a couple of seconds as a result. Both he and Tyrrell were hoping for a much better weekend than the last one. Salo had been disqualified for his car being 1.5kg underweight at the race end. To compound this, Katayama was also disqualified for having a push start after he stalled

on the grid.

The cars were soon all fighting for the top spot, Verstappen setting a 1:32.921, Frentzen a 1:33.642, and Barrichello a 1:34.717. Alesi's first flying lap was a 1:34.947 (7th), the car definitely not handling well. Frentzen then went fastest with a 1:32.747.

The crowd then went wild, as Schumacher emerged, the man they had all been waiting for. His first flying lap was a 1:32.280, and he followed this up with a 1:29.269, a full 2.588 seconds faster. He was pushing hard though, using the kerbs and more. Alesi managed to improve in the meantime to second place.

Schumacher's title rival, Damon Hill, set a 1:32.130 (2nd) on his second lap out of the pits, and his car was visibly not dialed in as well as in the previous races, the back end stepping out at Rivazza, as well as twitching under acceleration out of the corners. But the track conditions were rapidly improving, and Schumacher managed a 1:28.831

(-0.861s) to consolidate first.

Coming into the final corner, Schumacher came upon Salo. Salo made a bit of a mess of the corner, and Schumacher waved his hand at him as he passed. This was a tad unfair, as Salo wouldn't have been in the way had he got around cleanly. Indeed, Schumacher might have benefited from the tow on the straight. A few seconds later, braking for the Villeneuve chicane, Schumacher flew off into the gravel. I would like to have seen Salo's face.

Hill and Coulthard re-emerged, and were soon trying hard. Villeneuve also came out, and when trying to overtake a Forti into the final corner, he almost had a mirror of the Diniz/Hill incident at the Nurburgring, except the Forti managed an avoidance manoeuvre without leaving the track. Hill then caught the same car while on a flyer, and couldn't improve because of this.

Villeneuve soon made amends, setting a 1:29.921 for 2nd place, Hill improving to sixth. Panis in the Ligier was up to 5th, putting in another good practice session. Then in the dying minute, Rosset went flying off grasswards at the Piratella. He was lucky to avoid hitting anything, and he trundled back to the pits. There was only slight damage to the front wing. Barrichello then banged in an extremely fast lap (1:29.446), moving up to 2nd. No-one else improved before flag fall.

Practice Results

POS	DRIVER	TIME
1	M.Schumacher	1:28.831	198.255kph
2	R.Barrichello	1:29.446
3	J.Villeneuve	1:29.921
4	M.Hakkinen	1:29.984
5	O.Panis	1:30.150
6	D.Hill	1:30.415
7	D.Coulthard	1:30.420
8	E.Irvine	1:30.430
9	H.Frentzen	1:30.462
10	J.Herbert	1:30.570
11	M.Brundle	1:30.932
12	J.Verstappen	1:31.182
13	J.Alesi	1:31.513
14	G.Berger	1:31.654
15	M.Salo	1:31.970
16	R.Rosset	1:32.563
17	G.Fisichella	1:33.006
18	U.Katayama	1:33.377
19	P.Lamy	1:33.439
20	A.Montermini	1:36.052
21	L.Badoer	1:37.903
22	P.Diniz	1:51.765