qualified third, having closed up to the fastest two qualifiers during the session. He conceded that he was not quick enough to challenge for pole position after making some car adjustments. The two Williams drivers qualified on the grid's third row; Button in fifth was ahead of Ralf Schumacher in sixth. Both drivers had mixed feelings over their performance; Ralf Schumacher was unable to deal with setup changes to his car. Button's first two timed laps were impeded by Häkkinen and Trulli respectively and he lapped fastest at his third attempt. Irvine in seventh was slow to enter certain corners and had brake problems. Frentzen, eighth, reported driving a difficult-handling car. Villeneuve, ninth, had excess oversteer and failed to lap faster due to car alterations. Herbert, tenth, felt he could have qualified on the fourth row after a setup adjustment. Wurz in eleventh failed to qualify in the top ten by nearly two thousands of a second due to a lack of top speed. His teammate Fisichella started twelfth, reporting his car lost performance after morning practice. Both Arrows drivers were on the grid's seventh row–De La Rosa was faster than Verstappen–and were affected by water leak, electrical and hydraulic problems on the cars limiting their running. Trulli, 15th, had car power steering issues in high-speed corners and poor car balance. Heidfeld qualified 16th, ahead of Prost teammate Jean Alesi. Zonta had limited qualifying time due to an engine change and was 18th. Sauber took the grid's tenth row, Mika Salo in front of Diniz, who had a lack of traction and an understeer. Salo used the spare Sauber vehicle setup for Diniz because his race car had a broken electrical connection. Both of Diniz's two fastest qualifying times were disallowed because of him laying oil on the circuit and not stopping on the circuit in the morning practice sessions. The two Minardi drivers qualified at the rear of the grid with Marc Gené in 21st ahead of Gastón Mazzacane in 22nd. Gené drove the spare Minardi car due to a sudden gearbox oil temperature rise and Mazzacane made an error during the first third of his lap. Qualifying classification Warm-up The drivers took to the track at 10:00 Japan Standard Time (UTC +9) for a 30-minute warm-up session. It took place in cloudy weather and small drops of rain fell before the commencement of the session. This made the