Coulthard fastest in warm up

Rubens Barrichello started the day as he meant to go on, by running most of the morning warm up quickest, until being bested by Coulthard near the end of the session. The Brazilian's team mate Michael Schumacher had looked oddly off the boil, and failed to set a particularly quick time for much of the session. It took nearly all of the half-hour session to overhaul his team mate.

Ralf Schumacher, who had threatened all session, then went fastest in the Williams BMW. The German was no doubt pleased to get ahead of his team mate Jenson Button, who for the second time this season will start ahead of him.

Ralf remained well up in the times and finished the session third, with a 1m26.905

Mika Hakkinen started the session in the spare car, but in this McLaren, never troubled the top few. His race car, which he switched to near the end of the practice went better, and he began setting top-three times. He finished 4th, a shade behind Ralf.

Once again the Arrows team had a good session, with both drivers making appearances in the top few at some point. Verstappen went 3rd overall with minutes to go, then De La Rosa sat on top of the times for a few seconds before being displaced by Coulthard. He ended up second, which will boost his confidence after getting his timing wrong in yesterday's qualifying.

Prost's Nick Heidfeld had a poor start to race day - he caused the yellow flags to come out mere minutes after the session started, when his engine cover dramatically broke and was left in the middle of the track.

However, he was able to set a time, unlike Sauber's Mika Salo, who failed to complete a lap.

1 Coulthard McLaren
1m26.800
2 De La Rosa Arrows 1m26.844
3 R Schumacher Williams 1m26.905
4 Hakkinen McLaren
1m27.012
5 M Schumacher Ferrari 1m27.134
6 R Barrichello Ferrari 1m27.404
7 Button Williams 1m27.525
8 Mazzacane Minardi 1m27.598
9 Gene Minardi 1m27.640
10 Verstappen Arrows 1m27.740
11 Herbert Jaguar 1m27.769
12 Diniz Sauber 1m27.801
13 Alesi Prost 1m27.997
14 Fisichella Benetton 1m28.001
15 Zonta BAR 1m28.144
16 Irvine Jaguar 1m28.245
17 Frentzen Jordan 1m28.397
18 Trulli Jordan 1m28.514
19 Wurz Benetton 1m28.590
20 Villeneuve BAR 1m28.918
21 Heidfeld Prost 1m28.994
22 Salo Sauber 5m44.173