Hakkinen tops Sunday warm up

First cessation was caused by Alexander Wurz's Benetton grinding to a halt in the pitlane exit. Rather more worrying, however, was an incident that came 10 minutes from the end of the warm up, when Jean Alesi's Prost-Peugeot's rear wing - and the deformable structure it was attached to - fell off at the fastest part of the track. Coming after Sauber's rear wing failures yesterday, this was surely a matter of great concern for the French team.

This capped off a bad session for Alesi, who had already had an engine failure, and been forced to switch to the spare car.

Mika Hakkinen was fastest yet again, as he has been for most of the sessions this weekend. However, there was actually very little between Hakkinen and the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher today - a mere 0.005 seconds separated them at the end of the session.

David Coulthard was third quickest in his McLaren, while Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello was fourth. In fact, the McLarens and Ferraris - in varying order - have made up the top four at every single session thus far at the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend.

Jos Verstappen was 5th, underlining Arrows-Supertec's impressive form this weekend, while Ralf Schumacher appeared determined to turn the tables on Jenson Button, his team mate who has outqualified the experienced German in only his second Grand Prix. Schumacher finished the session 6th.

The two Prosts rounded out the times, after a troubled session. The rear wing problem will certainly have the French team scratching their heads before the Grand Prix itself this afternoon.