sessions each lasted an hour. The third and final practice sessions were held on Saturday morning and lasted 45 minutes. In the first practice session, held on a slippery track surface, Häkkinen set the fastest lap of 1 minute and 32.768 seconds, followed by Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, David Coulthard, Jacques Villeneuve, Ralf Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jos Verstappen, Eddie Irvine and Alexander Wurz. During the session, Ricardo Zonta and Heidfeld spun into a gravel trap beside the circuit, Johnny Herbert's car had a possible engine failure that cut out its ignition system, and Michael Schumacher's driving was curtailed due to the on-board television camera mounted atop of his Ferrari melting a wiring loom. Although he removed the left-rear wheel of his car in an sideways accident at the fast sweeping turn 14 midway through the second practice session because he missed the braking point, Michael Schumacher recorded the day's fastest lap of 1 minute and 32.130 seconds. Coulthard was second and Barrichello third. The rest of the top ten were Häkkinen, Villeneuve, Pedro Diniz, Frentzen, Wurz, Zonta and Irvine. In the third practice session, Michael Schumacher continued to run strongly with the fastest time of 1 minute and 30.439 seconds. Coulthard was 0.519 seconds behind in second place and Frentzen placed third. Fourth went to Barrichello and Trulli was fifth. Ralf Schumacher, Villeneuve, Herbert, Giancarlo Fisichella and Irvine followed in the top ten positions. Häkkinen's engine failed mid-way through his first lap, necessitating two teams of McLaren mechanics to spend 42 minutes dismantling both his and teammate's Coulthard's rear of their cars to change their engines and gearboxes to enable driving in the second practice session later that day. Michael Schumacher paced the final practice session with a lap of 1 minute and 30.390 seconds, ahead of Coulthard, Frentzen, Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, Trulli, Pedro de la Rosa, Verstappen, Villeneuve and Herbert. On his fourth lap, Button crashed into the turn ten right-hand side barrier at after clipping a kerb, removing the rear wheels from his Williams and heavily damaging its bodywork. The session was halted for ten minutes as track marshals extricated his car from the circuit. Qualifying Saturday's afternoon qualifying session lasted for an hour. Each driver was limited to twelve laps, with the starting order decided by the drivers' fastest laps. During this session, the 107% rule was in effect, which necessitated each driver set a time within