was third in the Benetton, four-tenths of a second slower than Coulthard, despite lapping fastest in the second part of qualifying. The time he set in the second part of qualifying was still slower than Coulthard and Hill's time set in the first part and he was third quickest overall. Behind the leading three, Berger was fourth with teammate Alesi in sixth. Eddie Irvine in the Jordan finished in fifth position. Herbert and Frentzen were on the fourth row on the grid, in seventh and eighth. Despite bringing car upgrades to the event, Häkkinen and Blundell could only qualify their McLarens ninth and tenth respectively. Tarquini qualified in nineteenth, four places behind teammate Salo, but admitted to feeling out-of-practice by Formula One standards. Several drivers went off the track during qualifying in the difficult conditions, including Panis and Montermini. Panis' crash was caused by a stuck throttle; the resultant damage to the car forced him to switch to the team's spare monocoque. The conditions during the first session were generally faster, with seventeen of the 24 drivers setting their fastest qualifying times in this period. Media attention focussed on Coulthard outperforming Hill in qualifying for the fourth time in a row. As Hill was mathematically the only possible contender to challenge Schumacher for the championship, there was a question from the media as to whether Williams should use to give Hill pole position. In response, Coulthard said that he was "rather tired of questions about team orders", adding that "everyone wants to see is a motor race" and it wasn't fair of Williams to ask him to slow down if he was faster than Hill. Following the session, Barrichello and Footwork driver Massimiliano Papis revealed that they expected to fail routine drugs tests they had just taken, as both had been taking decongestants, for nasal problems and a cold respectively, which contained the banned substance ephedrine. On Saturday, the team principals also met to discuss future changes to the sport: it was agreed that qualifying would be reduced to a single hour-long session for the 1996 season, and a reduction from seventeen to sixteen Grands Prix was confirmed. Qualifying classification Race The track surface for the start of the race was damp, but dried up as the race progressed. The drivers were scheduled to go onto the track at 09:30 CET (GMT +1) for a 30-minute warm-up session, however the