Villeneuve was third fastest for a moment but was beaten by Barrichello and Michael Schumacher, who improved his time to 1 minute and 31.781 seconds. Coulthard's next attack on Häkkinen's provisional pole time failed by one thousandth of a second. Two laps later he did it, with a time of 1 minute and 30.946 seconds, but Häkkinen countered in the final minute and took the pole position with 1 minute and 30.462 seconds, nearly half a second faster than Coulthard. Barrichello's fourth place behind Michael Schumacher was impressive. Not so impressive were Zanardi's 15th place, Alesi's 16th and most notably Panis' 20th position. As in the earlier practice sessions, many drivers left the track momentarily; Michael Schumacher even three times. Gené ended his session in the gravel, and the yellow flags spoiled a quick run for many drivers. To add to Gené's problems, Häkkinen's very fast lap time at the end of the session had pushed him off the starting grid, because the 107% time was now 1 minute and 36.974 seconds, and with 1 minute 37.013 seconds the Spaniard was 0.039 seconds outside the limit. By the same reasoning, the Minardi team issued an official request that Gené be allowed to start, which was subsequently granted by the Stewarts of the Meeting. Warm up In the pre-race warm up session, Coulthard and Häkkinen took turns setting the fastest time. Eventually Coulthard was quickest with 1 minute and 32.560 seconds, one-tenth ahead of Häkkinen. Panis performed better and beat his qualifying time, while other drivers were having problems. Hill went off and straight into the tyre barriers after the throttle had stuck open, and Zanardi had to switch to the spare car because of electrical problems with his race car. Ralf Schumacher got bogged down in the gravel, while Badoer, Coulthard, Diniz, Fisichella, de la Rosa, Toranosuke Takagi and Wurz all went off the track but were able to continue; Takagi only just missed the barriers. Alesi and Zonta collided when Zonta tried to pass and Alesi closed the door. Race Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard had dominated all sessions throughout the weekend with laptimes over a second quicker than anybody else, and with both cars starting from the front row of the grid, the race was looking to be an easy win for the McLaren team. However, the first signs of trouble came before the race had even begun: