Schumacher fastest in practice

With a blistering last minute run Schumacher posted a time of 1.22.71, and although Hakkinen fought back he was 0.1s slower.

Olivier Panis was the star of the session session, the 1996 winner retaining third place ahead of Eddie Irvine, who looked quicker but had his best laps spoilt by yellow flags or mistakes.

David Coulthard was a disappointing sixth behind Giancarlo Fisichella, who crashed at Portier on his final lap.

Rubens Barrichello was seventh ahead of the BARs, Salo narrowly quicker than Villeneuve.

Damon Hill had set the pace initially, but slumped to 11th by the end of the hour.

Neither Williams got out of the pits until the dying moments, and Zanardi and Ralf Schumacher finished 13th and 16th respectively. Schumacher only managed 10 laps during the two sessions today after he blew his engine during the morning's session.

Also languishing unexpectedly far down the order were Trulli (12th) and Frentzen (19th), both having crashed.