local time, and a second on Saturday morning between 09:00 to 11:00. The first practice session took place in dry conditions. The ambient temperature was . The second practice session was held in overcast and wet weather conditions, with a drop in the track temperature to and the ambient temperature to . Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was held from 13:00 to 14:00 local time. Each driver was limited to twelve laps with the implementation of a 107% rule to exclude slow drivers from competing in the race. The session was held in wet conditions; the ambient and track temperature were both . Rubens Barrichello clinched his first pole position of the season, in his Stewart, in a time of 1:38.441. He was joined on the front row by Jean Alesi, who was four-tenths of a second behind. Olivier Panis was third in his Prost. Coulthard took fourth despite going into the gravel and spinning off late in the session. Heinz-Harald Frentzen was fifth, with Michael Schumacher completing the top six. Due to the wet conditions, a then-record five drivers - Damon Hill, Marc Gené, Luca Badoer, Pedro de la Rosa, and Toranosuke Takagi - all failed to meet the 107% time. Hill missed out by just three milliseconds, the slimmest-ever margin. Due to the wet conditions, and the drivers' competitiveness in practice, all five drivers were permitted to race due to "exceptional circumstances". Race On Sunday morning, a pre-race warm up session took place at 09:30 local time, and lasted for 30 minutes. It took place in wet weather conditions, with the track temperature at and the ambient temperature was . Coulthard set the fastest lap with a time of 1:32.091. He was followed on the timesheets by Ferrari drivers Irvine and Michael Schumacher who completed the top three positions. The race took place in the afternoon from 14:00 local time, and started on a dry track, with an ambient temperature of and a track temperature of . Rubens Barrichello managed to get away quickly to maintain first position. Jean Alesi, starting second, was slower than Barrichello and held up drivers after the start. David Coulthard was able to pass Alesi on lap two. Mika Häkkinen stormed up through the field from his starting position of fourteenth to ninth place by lap two. Häkkinen caught and passed Olivier Panis for sixth place and then caught Michael Schumacher in fifth on