in the middle sector during his final attempt, losing him time. Excess understeer put Frentzen, who took ninth, off the track. Panis in tenth lost four-tenths of a second on his last timed lap. Heidfeld was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten after driving on worn tyres on his first two timed laps and new front tyres on his third. He was followed by Irvine in 12th, who had understeer going into the second corner and Villeneuve slowed him into the final corner. Jean Alesi was the faster of the two Prost cars in 13th and spoke of his belief that the team had made progress from its pre-season testing form. After a change of left-rear suspension wishbone, Räikkönen took 14th; he ran wide due to an understeer and was prevented from doing a fourth lap because he was called to the weighbridge. A light fuel road and a changed car balance put Burti 15th. Fisichella switched to the spare B201 car setup for his teammate Button due to a minor chassis technical issue on his race car and he took 16th. An oversteer in the fast-speed corners before a setup alteration to improve his car's balance put Button 17th. A lack of engine power and understeer left Verstappen in 18th. His teammate Bernoldi was blocked by Räikkönen on his final timed lap and was 19th. Gastón Mazzacane in the slower Prost car had his setup changed and improved his best time to go 20th-fastest. Understeer on Marques' first two attempts and setup improvements to correct it put him 21st. His teammate Alonso could not drive his race car because its gearbox and engine was replaced. He took the spare Minardi and was 22nd. Penalties 31 minutes into qualifying, the stewards deleted all of Bernoldi's lap times because the FIA technical delegate discovered the dimension of the Arrows A22's front wing and parts of its bodywork lying on the step plane were less than a respective and above the plane of reference. The penalty promoted Mazzacane to 19th, Marques to 20th, Alonso to 21st and dropped Bernoldi to 22nd. Qualifying classification Warm-up A 30-minute warm-up session was held on Sunday morning, in hot and humid weather and on a saturated track created by a tropical thunderstorm, prompting most teams run the intermediate tyres on their cars. A dry line appeared towards the session's end and the