first part of qualifying, Blundell crashed into the wall, meaning he could not set a time as his car was too badly damaged. Blundell had his second crash of the weekend at the 130R corner in Saturday practice, which was more serious than the first. Following medical advice, Blundell did not participate in the second qualifying session. He was unable to set a time, leaving him at the back of the grid. Aguri Suzuki crashed his Ligier during Saturday qualifying; he was unable to start the race since he was in a hospital with a broken rib. Qualifying classification Warm-up The drivers took to the track at 09:30 JST (GMT +9) for a 30-minute warmup session. Despite underperforming in qualifying, both Williams cars performed better in the wet weather warmup session; Hill had the fastest time of 2:00.025. Coulthard was third in the other Williams car; Schumacher split them in second position. Alesi completed the top four, eight-tenths of a second behind Hill. Race The track surface was damp for most of the race, which meant that lap times were slower than the previous days' qualifying sessions. Though 24 cars qualified for the race, only 22 took the start: Suzuki was unable to start because of his crash in qualifying and Roberto Moreno's Forti car suffered a gearbox problem. For the first time since the Japanese Grand Prix was held at Suzuka in 1987, tickets for the race did not sell out, despite the fact that three Japanese drivers entered the race. The race started at 14:00 JST. All of the drivers opted to start on wet-weather tyres as the track was damp from the morning rain. Schumacher, from pole position on the grid, held onto the lead into the first corner. Alesi, who started alongside Schumacher, was judged to have jumped the start, and served a 10-second stop-and-go penalty on lap three, from which he returned to the race in tenth place. Alesi's teammate Berger also jumped the start and received the same penalty. Gianni Morbidelli, near the back of the field in one of the Footwork cars, spun at the first corner on lap one after being hit from behind by Wendlinger's Sauber. Morbidelli stalled his car in the process, forcing him to retire from the race. On lap seven, Alesi stopped at the pits to change to dry weather slick tyres, as the track was beginning to