front wing. The Williams team added an extra fin on their cars engine hood and two minor fins on the sides along with new front and rear wings. Practice There were four practice sessions before the Sunday race—two one-hour sessions on Thursday, and two 45-minute sessions on Saturday. The Thursday morning and afternoon practice sessions were held in dry and hot weather conditions. Michael Schumacher set the fastest time in the first session, at 1 minute and 23.039 seconds, three-tenths of a second quicker than Häkkinen. Coulthard was third fastest, ahead of Fisichella and Frentzen. Alesi managed sixth despite suffering from gearbox issues which caused him to pull up on the track. Eddie Irvine of Jaguar, Williams' Jenson Button, Barrichello and Salo made up positions six to ten. Ralf Schumacher made contact with the barrier at the entry to the tunnel for which repairs were necessitated in the pit lane and Minardi's Gastón Mazzacane spun and lost his front right wheel in an accident at La Rascasse. In the second practice session, Häkkinen set the day's quickest lap, a 1:21.387; Coulthard finished with the third fastest time. The McLaren drivers were separated by Michael Schumacher. Eddie Irvine lapped quicker and was fourth fastest, in front of Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher. Alesi, seventh fastest, continued to encounter problems. Arrows' Pedro de la Rosa, Trulli and Barrichello followed in the top ten. Wurz crashed his car at the Swimming Pool complex, braking his front wing and removing one of his car's wheels. Nick Heidfeld lost control of his Prost car and damaged the right-hand side of his vehicle against the barrier at La Rascasse corner. Pedro Diniz damaged his Sauber entry against the barrier at the same turn and dropped a large amount of oil in the area that marshals attempted to remove. After taking Friday off – a feature of the timetable that was unique to the Monaco Grand Prix – for leisure time, sponsorship functions and teams preparing their vehicles for the second day of practice, the weather remained hot and dry for the Saturday morning practice sessions. Track evolution was observed during the third session. Michael Schumacher was the third session's fastest driver, setting a lap of 1:20.762; Barrichello was third. Häkkinen set a time one-tenth of a second slower than Michael Schumacher and was second fastest. Alesi continued to run quicker and was fourth fastest, faster than Coulthard,