Hakkinen charges to last-minute pole

Hakkinen had taken over at the head of the timesheets from McLaren team mate David Coulthard halfway through the session but Michael Schumacher's last run appeared to be good enough to usurp the McLarens.

However, a banzai effort from Hakkinen saw the Finn sneak ahead by less than 0.1s, despite putting two wheels on the grass on the exit of the Variante Alta and then fish-tailing wildly out of the final chicane.

Rubens Barrichello ended the session in fourth after finally conquering the handling problems that have hampered his efforts so far this weekend.

Ralf Schumacher took an unlikely fifth place, holding the position despite pulling off the course on the exit of Piratella in a cloud of smoke near the end of the session.

The Saubers shone for much of the session and it looked like both Mika Salo and Pedro Diniz would be in the top ten. Although late improvements from the Jordans, Eddie Irvine and Jacques Villeneuve pushed them down the order, Diniz hung on to take tenth place.

Johnny Herbert had a poor session and was only 17th, just ahead of Jenson Button, who never caught up on the time lost with hydraulic problems in the morning sessions.

Minardi had problems, Marc Gene parking his car on course with a mechanical problem early in the session and then having to wait until team mate Gaston Mazzacane had completed his allocated laps before taking over the second car and putting in a late charge. Both cars were still faster than the troubled Prost of Nick Heidfeld though.

Qualifying positions from Imola: