his session. With 15 minutes to go, Montoya damaged his car's rear at La Rascasse turn, and the session was stopped for four minutes as track marshals extricated him. His teammate Ralf Schumacher crashed his cars front-left at the Swimming Pool complex. Two track marshals retrieving Schumacher's front wing narrowly avoided being hit by Enrique Bernoldi's Arrows car. Irvine spun at the Novelle Chicane and Michael Schumacher swerved to avoid hitting his car. After taking Friday off—a feature of the event timetable unique to Monaco— the drivers returned to action on Saturday morning in clear weather. Ralf Schumacher complained of head and neck pain following his crash in the second session and was treated by his team's physiotherapist before being ordered to rest until Saturday. Nevertheless, he lapped quickest in the third practice session at 1 minute and 21.036 seconds, ahead of Villeneuve, Coulthard, Michael Schumacher, Sauber's Kimi Räikkönen, Irvine, Alesi, Frentzen, Panis and Trulli. After 13 minutes, Verstappen's engine failed, and laid oil at La Rascasse corner, prompting a quarter of an hour stoppage for marshals to clear it with sand. Luciano Burti's Prost car had a mechanical failure that sent him veering into the Sainte Devote tyre wall and narrowly avoided hitting multiple stationary recovery vehicles with three minutes remaining. Burti was unhurt. The delay to dry the oil at La Rascasse turn delayed the start of the fourth session by 10 minutes. Once underway, Häkkinen was fastest with a 1-minute and 18.282 seconds lap, followed by Michael Schumacher, Ralf Schumacher, Coulthard, Irvine, Trulli, Montoya, Barrichello, Alesi and Frentzen. Alonso spun 180 degrees at the Loews hairpin and blocked the track. Frentzen stopped into Casino Square corner and track marshals extricated his car. Räikkönen and Bernoldi had separate crashes at the Swimming Pool complex and La Rascasse corner; Bernoldi's front wing got lodged in Häkkinen's front suspension. Giancarlo Fisichella spun at La Racasse and blocked the circuit as track marshals extricated his Benetton car. Qualifying Saturday's afternoon one hour qualifying session saw each driver was limited to twelve laps, with the grid order decided by their fastest laps. During this session, the 107% rule was in effect, which necessitated each driver to set a time within 107 per cent of the quickest lap to qualify for the race. Conditions were warm and sunny for qualifying. Coulthard broke the unofficial track lap record set by Frentzen in 1997, and