more mistakes—qualified fifth and missed starting his final lap by 0.1 seconds. Button and Ralf Schumacher clinched sixth and seventh positions, respectively, although both drivers had mixed feelings over their performances. Verstappen initially held the pole position in the session's closing seconds but spun off the track and was demoted to eighth. Irvine took ninth and Villeneuve rounded out the top ten fastest qualifiers. Trulli qualified in eleventh position but was prevented from setting a quicker time as he was held up by one of the Williams. He was ahead of Fisichella in the faster of the two Benettons. Diniz qualified in 13th position, eight tenths of a second ahead of teammate Salo in 18th; both drivers disadvantaged by the timing of their runs. The two were separated by Johnny Herbert who encountered yellow flags during the session. He was followed up by Jean Alesi and Nick Heidfeld in the Prosts, who sandwiched Zonta. Behind Heidfeld, Pedro de la Rosa in the slower Arrows set the 19th-fastest time and made a mistake during his final qualifying run. Wurz ran his team's spare car due to an unidentifiable problem on his race car and was 20th-quickest. The two Minardi drivers Marc Gené and Gastón Mazzacane completed the final row of the grid. The large amount of rain during the weeks leading up to the race caused extensive damage and flooding to Silverstone's car parks which saw a large reduction in spectator numbers in qualifying from 60,000 in 1999 to 15,000 in 2000. The car parks were closed to all traffic except for coaches which meant some spectators walked to the circuit to attend the Grand Prix. The circuit's owners placed 300 tonnes of hardcore material in car parks and entrance routes to the circuit for the Sunday race. Qualifying classification Warm-up The conditions on the grid were dry before the race; conditions were expected to remain consistent throughout the race. The drivers were due to take to the track at 09:30 BST (UTC+1) for a 30-minute warm-up session, but the session was delayed by 100 minutes due to persistent fog which prevented the medical helicopter from arriving at the track. The Drivers' Parade was cancelled because of the delays. The McLaren drivers were running quicker than their pace in qualifying; Coulthard had the fastest time of 1:26.800. Häkkinen was fourth in the other McLaren, two tenths of a second behind Coulthard.