'Of course, it's not good to be this far down the grid,' said Frentzen. 'But, after the difficulties I had this morning, eighth is actually not too bad. In our fight for fourth place in the Constructors' Championship, BAR and Benetton are behind us on the grid, so that's positive. I'm not happy with the way the car performed and we don't know why exactly. I know this track very well and I tried to get the optimum out of it, so that's the best I could do.'

Trulli never recovered from the time lost early in the first morning practice session after spinning off on oil. 'I don't know why, but the balance of the car was perfect yesterday but no good today,' said Trulli. 'I didn't have enough running to find the solution and, on top of that, I couldn't get a light enough feel from the power steering, so it was a big struggle.'

The battle for pole was a straight fight between Hakkinen and Schumacher as the McLaren and Ferrari drivers traded fastest times with each lap, pole eventually going to Schumacher after Hakkinen narrowly failed to match the championship leader's time on his last run. David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello, third and fourth quickest, could not get close while Jenson Button caused a surprise by setting fifth fastest time on the Williams driver's first visit to Suzuka.

Jordan Grand Prix