was third on 67 points, ahead of Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello in fourth on 58 points. Barrichello was still able to clinch third place if he won the race and Coulthard finished outside of the top six. Although the Drivers' Championship was decided, the World Constructors' Championship was not. Ferrari were leading on 156 points, and McLaren were second on 143 points, with a maximum of 16 points available. McLaren had to come first and second in the Grand Prix to become Constructors' Champions whereas Ferrari required one of its two drivers to finish second or score three points by achieving a fourth-place result to claim the title. Prior to the event, protests over the imprisonment of Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim threatened to disrupt the race. The campaign group, known as Free Anwar, were reported in the media that they would use the Grand Prix in an attempt to bid for securing Ibrahim's release. However, the director of the campaign Raja Petra Kamarudin subsequently announced the event would be left untouched. The weekend marked Jaguar driver Johnny Herbert and Sauber's Pedro Diniz final race. It was announced shortly beforehand that Herbert would move to the CART series and he confirmed that he rejected an offer to take up an testing position for the Williams team. Herbert said going into the weekend: "It's going to be a bit emotional getting out of the car for the last time and out of Formula One. But I'm really looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead of me." Diniz's future however was uncertain as he was rumored to be moving to Prost after undergoing extensive negotiations with the team. Following the Japanese Grand Prix on 8 October, three teams conducted testing sessions at European race tracks between 10 and 13 October to prepare for the upcoming Grand Prix. Ferrari opted to spend the four days with test driver Luca Badoer. He tested new mechanical components on the F1-2000 car at the Fiorano Circuit on a wet/dry track. He later moved to the Mugello Circuit where he tried out brake testing, car set-ups, tyre evaluation, endurance runs for the car's engines and continued trying out new car components. Benetton cancelled a test in Barcelona during the period and decided to run at the Silverstone Circuit one week later using new Supertec engines angled at 110° degrees. The Grand Prix was contested by eleven