and Minardi drivers, in the order of Katayama, Badoer, Salo and Martini. Nearing the back of the grid, Schiattarella outqualified Verstappen for the first time by taking 20th position on the grid; Verstappen failed to improve on his Thursday time after another crash and further gearbox problems, and was restricted to 23rd. Gachot set the 21st-fastest time for Pacific, but on this occasion it was Montermini's turn to not set a time as a result of his car suffering a gearbox failure; he dropped to 25th place. As on Thursday, the Forti drivers again had to share a single car, as Moreno's car developed a misfire: he qualified in 24th position, two places behind Diniz. The grid, which was covered by just over 9.5 seconds, was completed by the absent Inoue. Race On Sunday morning, a pre-race warm-up session took place at 11:00 local time, and lasted for 30 minutes. It took place in dry weather conditions. Alesi led his teammate Berger at the top of the standings with a time of 1:24.356; both Ferrari drivers trying their race and spare cars. Schumacher was third, ahead of Häkkinen, Herbert, and Hill, who was concerned about the development of understeer in the handling of his race car, particularly in the track's slower corners. Coulthard set the 11th-fastest time, and the Williams team, worried about its cars' pace in race trim, opted to switch its planned pit strategy from one stop to two, hoping that the cars would handle better on the relatively lighter fuel load required for such tactics. Meanwhile, the Sauber mechanics had built up a new spare car for Frentzen (who was now driving the team's original spare car after the damage to his race car was found to be irreparable) and also repaired Boullion's damaged machine. Their Jordan counterparts had performed similar work on Irvine's car, whilst Barrichello's car suffered a broken wheel rim. Inoue was cleared to race, and set the slowest time of the session in the spare Footwork. As was traditional in Monaco, the race began at the relatively late time of 15:30, allowing Prince Rainier and his family to eat lunch before viewing the event from the royal box on the start-finish straight. The race took place in warm, sunny conditions, with an ambient temperature of , and was watched by a total of approximately 48,000 spectators. As the drivers completed their reconnaissance laps