wide at the exit of Spoon Curve corner and returned to the circuit after driving into the gravel. Fisichella set the fifth quickest lap, ahead of Villeneuve in sixth, who spun into the gravel at the hairpin late on and had to walk to the pit lane. Barrichello, Irvine, Jaguar's Johnny Herbert and De La Rosa completed the top ten. The engine in Pedro Diniz's Sauber car failed ten minutes into practice; smoke and fire billowed from the rear of his car and a large amount of oil was laid on the circuit. He returned to the pit lane rather than stop at the side of the track. Some drivers slid on the oil. Häkkinen set the final practice session's quickest lap of 1:37.037 with 15 minutes remaining, going one-tenth of a second faster than Michael Schumacher. Button, third, was happy with his car's performance. Barrichello maintained his consistent performance and set the fourth fastest time despite again spinning into the gravel traps. He was ahead of Ralf Schumacher who had his fastest lap time that was quickest overall revoked after exceeding track limits at the chicane when he braked too late with ten minutes left. Coulthard was sixth, two-tenths of a second faster than Fisichella in seventh. Irvine, Benetton's Alexander Wurz and Villeneuve made up positions eight through ten. Irvine had a car throttle system fault and ran wide into the gravel at the Spoon Curve corner. He used the perimeter of the gravel to rejoin the track. Villeneuve had his fourth spin into the gravel trap but was able to return to the circuit. Qualifying Saturday's afternoon one hour qualifying session saw each driver was limited to twelve laps, with the starting order decided by their fastest laps. During this session, the 107% rule was in effect, which necessitated each driver set a time within 107 per cent of the quickest lap to qualify for the race. The session was held in dry weather. Michael Schumacher was sent into a gap in traffic by Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn, and took his eighth pole position of the season, the 31st of his Formula One career, with a lap of 1:35.825 that he set with three minutes remaining. He was joined on the grid's front row by Häkkinen, who was nine thousands of a second slower than Schumacher and battled him for grid position throughout qualifying. Häkkinen's teammate Coulthard