to reduce the weight of their cars and the Williams team arrived with a revised rear wing. Williams engine suppliers BMW confirmed that they would be running the same specification of engine introduced in Belgium. Practice A total of four practice sessions preceded Sunday's race—two one-hour sessions on Friday, and two 45-minute sessions on Saturday. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions were held in dry and warm weather. Several drivers immediately ventured onto the circuit for car checks since teams were not permitted to test at Suzuka. Michael Schumacher was fastest in the first practice session with a time of 1 minute and 38.474 seconds that he recorded with two minutes remaining, ahead of Häkkinen and Coulthard in second and third places. Barrichello, fourth, caused the session to be yellow flagged when he spun at the hairpin between turns ten and eleven and crashed into the perimeter fencing. Ralf Schumacher was fifth fastest, with Benetton's Giancarlo Fisichella sixth. Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli set the seventh and ninth fastest times respectively for Jordan; they were separated by Jaguar's Eddie Irvine. Jacques Villeneuve of the BAR team was tenth despite a spin off the circuit at Degner Curve at that caused grass to penetrate his radiators. In the second practice session, Michael Schumacher set the day's fastest lap, a 1:37.728, six-tenths of a second faster than Häkkinen. Barrichello had trouble selecting first gear on his final run although he improved his lap to be third-quickest. Coulthard, Button, Frentzen, Trulli, Arrows driver Pedro de la Rosa, Villeneuve and BAR's Ricardo Zonta were in positions four through ten. Villeneuve had his second spin of the day, when he lost control of his car at Spoon Kurve turn on his final lap. He hit the barrier with his car's right-front wheel. Just after halfway through the session while cars were being driven on the track, an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the richter scale with the epicentre in the city of Okayama was felt at Suzuka, although no structural damage to the circuit was reported and no one was injured despite mild alarm. The weather remained dry and warm for the Saturday morning practice sessions. Michael Schumacher again lapped fastest for the third session, a 1:37.176, quicker than his best on Friday. The Williams drivers were running quicker; Ralf Schumacher in second and Button in fourth. They were separated by Coulthard in third who went