beached his car in a gravel trap at turn nine and Minardi's Tarso Marques spun at turn nine. Qualifying Saturday afternoon's one hour qualifying session saw each driver limited to twelve laps, with the starting order decided by their fastest laps. During this session the 107% rule was in effect, requiring each driver to remain within 107 per cent of the fastest lap time to qualify for the race. It remained hot and clear with the air temperature from and a track temperature between . Several drivers waited for 20 minutes before commencing their first timed laps. Michael Schumacher overtook Hakkinen as the fastest driver on his first attempt, having opted to do two timed laps. He set his quickest lap with 20 minutes remaining, taking his ninth pole position of the season and the 41st of his career with a new qualifying track record of 1 minute, 14.059 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Coulthard who was 0.801 seconds slower; an oversteer put him wide at the left-hand turn 13 and Frentzen had earlier slowed him. Barrichello in third was delayed by Montoya early on after which his Ferrari's balance changed and developed more understeer due to rising track temperatures. Ralf Schumacher was the highest-placed Michelin shod car in fourth, and fifth-placed Trulli aborted one timed lap following an error. Häkkinen had difficulty finding an ideal setup for his McLaren and took sixth. Heidfeld, seventh, aborted two of his timed laps through separate minor errors. Eighth-placed Montoya had a power understeer that caused him to spin. An understeer in Räikkönen's Sauber on his last two laps put him ninth. Villeneuve adjusted his car's setup to qualify tenth. Panis in 11th was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten because he lost time with an electrical fault and spun because of an inoperable traction control system. Alesi made it an all-French sixth row in 12th; he admitted he required additional familiarity with his car. The Jaguars occupied 13th and 14th places: Pedro de la Rosa ahead of his teammate Irvine; the former made errors on his first two timed laps and the latter said he over-drove trying to qualify in the top ten. Fisichella in the faster of the two Benetton cars in 15th reported a loss of grip. Frentzen in a lightly fuelled car could not match his form from the morning's