the rear of the grid in positions 21 to 22; both drivers were 2.4 and 2.6 seconds slower than the pole sitter respectively, Minardi's best qualifying performance from first position over the course of the season up to that point. Post-qualifying After the qualifying session, but before the warm-up period, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) safety delegate, Charlie Whiting announced that he had banned practice starts at the pit lane exit after observing the behaviour of drivers in the area during the Saturday free practice sessions. Qualifying classification Warm-up The drivers took to the track at 09:30 Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) for a 30-minute warm-up session, in sunny weather conditions. Overnight rain made the asphalt surface slippery but the sun dried the circuit out as the session progressed; lap times were substantially slower than observed in the preceding two days. Teams installed wet tyres to their cars to begin the session until they switched to dry compound tyres as lap times lowered and the condition of the circuit improved. Drivers made setup changes to their cars and some reported issues. Häkkinen recorded the fastest time of 1:19.329 which was set with two minutes remaining. Coulthard was second in the other McLaren car. Michael Schumacher set the third fastest time with Trulli fourth. Michael Schumacher drove the spare Ferrari car and his race car, making adjustments to adjust to the changing track conditions. Some drivers lost control of their cars on the slippery track, and Frentzen damaged a semi-axle by going off the circuit. Race The race started before 112,112 spectators at 14:00 local time. It lasted 72 laps over a distance of . The conditions on the grid were dry before the race. The air temperature ranged from and the track temperature was between ; conditions were expected to remain consistent throughout the race with 40 per cent chance of rain. All drivers started on the Extra Soft dry compound tyres. Tyre usage by driver and car setup changes by drivers affected compound wear. Autosport wrote that "the key to the French GP was always going to be the start" due to the short pit lane straight leading into a fast left-hand corner rather than having a heavy braking zone. The publication noted "For the drivers in the even numbered grid positions, on the inside line, it's always a bit difficult. The cars on the outside have a