Championships, clinched his fourth pole position of the season, his first since the more than three months earlier, and the 25th of his career with a lap of 1:10.410. He was joined on the front row of the grid by teammate Coulthard who was three-tenths of a second off Häkkinen's pace and was outqualified by his teammate for the first time since the . Coulthard felt he could have challenged for pole position but he clipped a kerb going into Castrol Kurve on his final run which cost him time. Both drivers were satisfied with their car's balance. Barrichello qualified third and briefly held pole position on a new set of tyres until the McLaren drivers set their lap times. He said that he changed his car's set-up to help him to achieve a better lap time. Michael Schumacher qualified fourth, six-tenths of a second behind Häkkinen, and reported his car's handling was uneven throughout the circuit. He also had a high-speed spin at the second corner during the session and aborted his final run after he made a mistake at the exit of Gösser corner. Trulli qualified fifth, having used the soft compound tyres to set his fastest lap and the Jordan team determining no rain delay at the time. Zonta and Villeneuve were sixth and seventh respectively due to their new car aerodynamic packages, both drivers spun during the session. Fisichella lapped eighth quickest although he lost a bargeboard when he went off the circuit. He felt he could have secured fifth but a yellow flag caused him to slow. Salo and Verstappen were ninth and tenth. Diniz missed qualifying in the top ten by two-thousands of a second and spun off while setting lap times, triggering a yellow-flag. De La Rosa, twelfth, struggled with the conditions during the session. He qualified ahead of Prost driver Nick Heidfeld and Wurz. Frentzen, 15th, ran the hard compound tyres and his lap times were set early in the session before there was an improvement in track conditions. Frentzen said it was because he felt rain would fall towards the end of qualifying. Herbert started from 16th, after stopping on one run because of a broken left rear suspension caused by a loose suspension bracket at the Niki Lauda Kurve. A rear wishbone on his car had also been flexing. Jean Alesi qualified his Prost car 17th. Jenson Button, 18th, used