performance of the season. Villeneuve set the sixth fastest lap time despite having to walk to the pit lane when his car's engine was turned off due to a loss of power that slowed him on the straights during his final run. Irvine made set-up changes and secured seventh although he believed he could have been quicker as he slowed through turn 15. Ralf Schumacher in eighth lost four-tenths of a second on his fastest lap. Trulli and Frentzen were ninth and tenth for Jordan. Zonta missed qualifying in the top ten by two-tenths of a second, losing time due to a braking issue. Herbert, in his final Formula One race, qualified twelfth and had understeer following an engine change. He was ahead of Fisichella in 13th and Pedro de la Rosa in 14th whose fastest lap for the Arrows squad was recorded on a set of new tyres. Jos Verstappen, 15th, experienced an understeer that saw him make a driver error and sustain damage to a radiator that leaked water in his race car. He consequently drove Arrows' spare car. Button qualified 16th, encountering traffic during the session and could not lap faster since he was unable to scrub down his tyres. Salo in 17th had all four of his runs affected by outside circumstances and he lost downforce by following Irvine. Prost's Jean Alesi and Nick Heidfeld were 18th and 19th after climate-related performance issues. Understeer and a tyre mix up left Diniz 20th. The Minardi duo of Marc Gené in 21st and Mazzacane in 22nd completed the starting grid. Qualifying classification Warm-up The drivers took to the track at 10:30 Malaysian Standard Time (GMT +8) for a half hour warm-up session. It occurred in warm and dry weather conditions. Lap times set in the session were approximately two-and-a-half seconds slower than observed in qualifying since vehicles were refitted with race-specific bodywork and radiators. Zonta set the fastest lap time, a 1:40.032, that he recorded with two minutes of the session remaining. Both McLaren drivers were within the first four positions—Häkkinen was second, lapping slightly slower than Zonta; Coulthard recorded the fourth-fastest time. They were separated by Michael Schumacher in third position. Race The race started at 15:00 local time. It ran for a total of 56 laps over a distance of . The conditions for the race were dry and cloudy with the air temperature and the