before the Senna S chicane and crashed into the wall, but was unhurt. Qualifying Saturday afternoon's one-hour qualifying session saw drivers circulate the track simultaneously. Each driver was limited to twelve laps; their fastest laps would determine the starting order for the race. During this session the 107% rule was in effect, requiring each driver to remain within 107 per cent of the fastest lap to qualify for the race. Heavy rain fell in the session's final hour and the resulting slippery track prevented drivers from improving their best laps. The session was stopped three times because a heavy wind caused a gantry-mounted cardboard advertising hoarding, joined by nylon ties above the start/finish straight, to detach and fall onto the track. Häkkinen went fastest with 15 minutes to go before the rain fell with a 1-minute, 14.111 seconds lap, earning his second consecutive pole position, and the 23rd of his career. Häkkinen's teammate Coulthard was second and the Ferrari duo of Michael Schumacher and Barrichello took third and fourth; Schumacher understeered into the grass on his second timed lap, damaging his car's undertray on the corrugations of a high-mounted kerb. He drove the spare Ferrari for the rest of qualifying. Barrichello had to abort a fast lap due to the stoppage. Fisichella, fifth, praised his car's handling. Irvine in sixth was happy with his Jaguar's grip and balance. Frentzen qualified seventh after Pedro Diniz slowed him. Zonta, eighth, focused on aerodynamic setup to improve his car's handling. Button switched his engine between the final practice session and qualifying and worked to change the setup of his car with his race engineer Tim Preston. He was fourth early on before falling to ninth. Villeneuve qualified in tenth as traffic slowed two of his timed laps and he ran onto the grass. Ralf Schumacher was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten after different spring rates failed to improve the setup of his chassis. Trulli spun into a gravel trap at the Bico de Peto hairpin on his first timed lap. He returned to the pit lane to drive the spare Jordan car; an electronic control unit fault affected its gear selection and left him 12th. Traffic slowed all of Wurz's laps and left him in 13th. Clutch issues left Verstappen in 14th. Alesi, 15th, swerved at more than to avoid the falling advertising hoarding; it damaged his car's