way to the third-fastest time, although he complained that Alesi had held him up on what he thought would have been his quickest lap of the session. The form of the Ferraris came as something of a surprise, as the 41T2's unique V12 engine configuration theoretically produced less torque than its rivals, a disadvantage on a circuit as tight as Monaco. Alesi said that he believed the results of the session were due to the extreme effort that he and Berger were putting into their driving overcoming any deficiencies with the car. The Ferraris were split by Schumacher, who felt that the rain shower had prevented him from fulfilling his potential, as he did not complete his full quota of 12 laps as a result of the track conditions becoming slower. His teammate, Herbert, took provisional sixth place. Of the Williams drivers, Hill was fourth, but Coulthard admitted that he was still learning the track on his way to 11th, 2.8 seconds slower than Alesi's best. Häkkinen continued McLaren's promising form with a provisional fifth place, but was fined $10,000 for ignoring yellow flags during the season. Blundell was back in eighth after crashing into the barriers in the closing minutes of the session. Frentzen impressed by setting the seventh-fastest time in his first Monaco qualifying session, despite having to take to the escape road at the Nouvelle Chicane after encountering the rain shower whilst on a flying lap. After his morning accident, Boullion drove steadily to take a provisional 21st position, complaining of a dire lack of grip from the C14 chassis. Another Monaco rookie, Eddie Irvine, out-paced his more experienced Jordan teammate, Rubens Barrichello, as the pair set the ninth and 13th-fastest times respectively. They were split by Coulthard and the Ligier drivers, with Martin Brundle ahead of Olivier Panis, despite the former crashing at La Rascasse and removing his rear wing as the rain fell. Gianni Morbidelli, who took 14th place, was another driver to crash during the sudden change to wet conditions, as did Footwork teammate Taki Inoue on his way to 24th position. Minardi drivers Luca Badoer and Pierluigi Martini occupied the provisional eighth row of the grid, just ahead of Tyrrell teammates Mika Salo and Ukyo Katayama, both of whom complained of poor handling over the bumps and understeer, despite the expected benefits of the Hydrolink suspension. Towards the back of the Thursday time