The hour started, and no-one emerged. People were relaxed and taking it easy, mulling over the results of the morning warm-up. Hill had been fastest, 0.003s faster than Schumacher, from Villeneuve, Coulthard, Hakkinen, Irvine, Berger, Barrichello, Alesi and Salo.

The track temperature was 35.8C, 16C higher than the morning, and the ambient temperature was 22C, 6C higher. Tyre pressures were going to be greatly affected, and the first few laps purely exploratory.

Verstappen was the first car out again, after three minutes. He had been off at the Rivazza in the morning warm-up, lightly damaging his car. On his second morning appearance, the engine had cut out. He was hoping for improvement. Coulthard also emerged, his McLaren Mercedes and his confidence going much better. Coulthard was by far the fastest on the first of the flying laps, setting a 1:29.477 compared to Verstappen's 1:30.788. Coulthard lowered this to 1:28.717 on his next lap, willingly attacking the kerbs, something unseen from him so far this season.

Schumacher then came out, using Ferrari's special qualifying engine. The Ferrari was now the equal of the Williams on top speed in qualifying trim, and the McLaren Mercedes wasn't far off either. Schumacher's first flying lap was a 1:27.512, -1.205s on Coulthard. He lowered this to 1:27.416 on his second. His immediate challenge came from Villeneuve, who was now on the circuit. Villeneuve's third lap was a 1:29.749, followed by a 1:28.037 and a 1:27.469. This required Villeneuve to straight-line all the chicanes though.

Hill was the next one out, but Panis was making an early bid for glory. Exiting the Villeneuve Chicane, Panis quickly but harmlessly lost it. A couple of cars flashed past, but Panis had kept the engine going, and quickly rejoined the flow. Hakkinen was also involved in a near miss, as he misjudged Barrichello braking into the Variante Bassa, and almost shunted his rear. Hill by this time was up to speed, and went third fastets, 0.548s back. Come the next split, Hill was faster, but he couldn't maintain this to the second. Hill

was much smoother than Villeneuve, and decided to call it quits for the moment, coming in to conserve his tyres and his allotted laps.

Alesi emerged, but was quite slow, and attention was more focussed on Lamy and his gentle 360 degree spin into the Rivazza anyway. Berger by contrast was having a much better day, and set a 1:28.591 (4th). Even he though was having handling problems, as demonstrated on his next lap when he slid wide onto the grass at the Villeneuve Chicane, managing to hold it and keep going. Alesi set a 1:29.505 (9th).

Coulthard's turn was next, and he set a 1:28.717 (5th). He was looking very confident, and the car was well set-up. McLaren seem to be on the way up, whereas Sauber and Herbert were going round in circles. Coming out of the Variante Bassa, Herbert lost it, spinning down the straight. This ruined two laps, and he called it a day, coming back into the pits. The new Forti was also out on track, and was significantly faster than the new one. This was bad news for Montermini, who was driving the old one, and he was below the 107% qualifying cut-off.

Four minutes left, and Hill came out for his final run. Hill could find no improvement, but Villeneuve managed to close to within 0.3s. Schumacher was still out and pressing hard, and set the fastest time (1:26.890), but into the next corner he completely lost it and spun off (this was becoming a habit....). But to be fair to him, the left rear suspension had failed, pitching him off, whereas the previous one had been driver error. The chequered flag cam out, but despite a tank-slapper out of the final corner, Villeneuve couldn't improve, and neither could Hill.

Qualifying Results

POS	DRIVER	TIME
1	M.Schumacher	1:26.890	202.683kph
2	D.Hill	1:27.105
3	J.Villeneuve	1:27.220
4	D.Coulthard	1:27.688
5	J.Alesi	1:28.009
6	E.Irvine	1:28.205
7	G.Berger	1:28.336
8	M.Salo	1:28.423
9	R.Barrichello	1:28.632
10	H.Frentzen	1:28.785
11	M.Hakkinen	1:29.079
12	M.Brundle	1:29.099
13	O.Panis	1:29.472
14	J.Verstappen	1:29.539
15	J.Herbert	1:29.541
16	U.Katayama	1:29.892
17	P.Diniz	1:29.989
18	P.Lamy	1:30.471
19	G.Fisichella	1:30.814
20	R.Rosset	1:31.316
21	L.Badoer	1:32.037
	DNQ
22	A.Montermini	1:33.685