San Marino GP Qualifying report & times

The action really started with 35 minutes of the session to go, Villeneuve came out to record a 1:28.803 laptime and soon the track was packed.

Johnny Herbert briefly set fastest lap at 1:28.757, but by the end of the session he had slipped to twelfth

Hakkinen proceeded to underline the now predictable McLaren dominance setting fastest lap (1:26.842) on his first run out. Soon Eddie Irvine was third quickest, just eight tenths of a second down and then Michael Schumacher responded by claiming third position on his first lap.

Irvine continued to put the pressure on his team-mate, he reclaimed third spot going a full three tenths quicker than Schumacher.

With twenty minutes to go the German put in a blistering lap, missing pole by one tenth of a second. He was then second on the grid. The next lap Hakkinen upped the pole time by two tenths only to have Coulthard take another one tenth of his time.

Ten minutes from the end, Schumacher moved back upto second, one tenth behind Coulthard but finally it was Hakkinen who, as he has done in nearly every session this year, went for a last flying run and just pipped Coulthard to pole.

In the last minute of the session, Schumacher, Hakkinen and Coulthard all went out on the track, Coulthard was looking good for pole having been faster in the first two sectors, bur finished up just 0.022 seconds outside Hakkinen's time. The other two were unable to improve their times.

Notably, both Benettons struggle to get on the pace throughout the day but Villeneuve put his BAR a very respectable fifth on the grid. Barichello consolidated the performance of the Stewart in Australia and Brazil by qualifying sixth and Frentzen once again outqualified his team-mate Damon Hill.

Both McLarens and Michael Schumacher chose to run on the harder tyres, while the Jordans and Eddie Irvine opted for the softer compound. It is expected that the Ferrari will run better in race trim tomorrow, but what is most significant is that the gap between themselves and the McLarens has fallen to under two tenths of a second.