to qualify for the race. Qualifying was held in dry and hot weather, and conditions continued to increase occasionally during the session. Michael Schumacher achieved his fourth pole position of the season, and the 27th of his career, with a time of 1:15.632 which he set approximately 25 minutes into the session. He was joined on the front row of the grid by Coulthard with his fastest time was 0.102 seconds slower and drove the spare McLaren vehicle while the team's mechanics fitted his race car with a new fuel pump. Coulthard was unable to lap faster when he spun through 180 degrees and then the FIA instructed him to undergo a car weight inspection in the pit lane. Barrichello secured third having changed his car's set-up during the session which garnered confusion over changes in the ride height. Häkkinen took fourth and was demoted to the position by Barrichello on the latter's final run with the latter experiencing difficulty in the slow speed corners. Ralf Schumacher qualified fifth late in the session and was happy with his starting position. Irvine was demoted by Ralf Schumacher to sixth in the closing stages of qualifying. BAR driver Villeneuve qualified in seventh. Jordan's Trulli and Frentzen were seventh and eighth. Both drivers were disappointed with their performance; Trulli went wide off the circuit and used the off surface to return to the circuit, preventing him from lapping faster. Button qualified tenth. Herbert in eleventh failed to qualify in the top ten by nearly three-tenths of a second. Salo took twelfth on the grid with his fastest time set when air and track temperatures were lowered by cloud cover. He was ahead of de la Rosa in the faster of the two Arrows in 13th position; de la Rosa's electronics system failed and he returned to the pit lane to drive the spare Arrows car. Fisichella started from 14th position due to car balance and tyre wear, nearly one-tenth of a second faster than Benetton teammate Alexander Wurz; both drivers reported that their cars had grip issues. The two were split by Pedro Diniz in the other Sauber and Heidfeld. Alesi followed in 18th. Zonta set the 19th fastest time and used BAR's spare car following an engine failure on his race car. Verstappen took 20th due to a lack of grip. The two Minardi drivers Marc Gené and Gastón Mazzacane qualified at