difficult to drive having spun on his first quick lap and switched to the spare Williams for the remainder of the session. Barrichello was four tenths of a second slower than Michael Schumacher in sixth place, and blamed excessive understeer which caused him to have problems with handling. The two Jordans filled the fourth row of the grid with Trulli seventh and Frentzen eighth. This formation continued onto the fifth row which was occupied by Heidfeld and Räikkönen in the Saubers, with the former changing his set-up to move ahead of his teammate. The sixth row was filled by the BARs of Panis and Jacques Villeneuve and both drivers complained they had a lack of grip in the slow-speed corners. Irvine and Burti recorded the 13th- and 14th-fastest times in their Jaguars, ahead of Jean Alesi in the faster of the two Prosts. Enrique Bernoldi was 16th-quickest for the Arrows team, ahead of teammate Jos Verstappen. Giancarlo Fisichella and Jenson Button for the Benetton team secured the 18th and 20th positions, respectively, the pair endured poor balance and oil leaks in their engines. They were sandwiched by Alonso in the faster Minardi car. Gastón Mazzacane and Tarso Marques completed the final two positions on the grid. Qualifying classification Warm-up The conditions on the grid were dry before the race; the air temperature was and the track temperature ranged from . The drivers took to the track at 11:30 BRT (UTC-3) for a 30-minute warm-up session. It took place in dry and hot weather conditions. Both Ferrari cars were running quickly throughout the session; Michael Schumacher had the fastest time, a 1:15.971 and also drove his race car and Ferrari's spare car in the half-hour period. Barrichello finished with the second-quickest time. Häkkinen was third-quickest, and Ralf Schumacher rounded out the top four, with a lap four tenths of a second slower than Michael Schumacher. Alonso went into the gravel trap and his car rested in the tyre barriers which caused damage to his front wing. Race The race started at 14:00 local time. A significant overtaking maneuver took place very early in the race. The safety car was brought onto the track because McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen had stalled on the starting grid. When the safety car came in, F1 rookie Juan Pablo Montoya overtook defending champion Michael Schumacher. Local hero Rubens Barrichello had problems before he even got on