Traces of overnight rain remained on the circuit as the 22 cars began the 30-minute warm-up. After a few laps drivers began to switch to dry-weather tyres, but not before Frentzen had broken a drive-shaft while trying to spin-turn his car after taking to an escape road. Heinz-Harald returned to the pits and continued in the spare car, which was set up for him in any case.
The times continued to tumble with Trulli being fourth quickest on his last lap in the closing seconds. Frentzen had moved into seventh place a few minutes before but did not continue when the track was at its quickest.
‘Everything went well,’ said Mike Gascoyne, Technical Director at Jordan Grand Prix. ‘There were no problems and both drivers are happy. It was the usual story here of adapting the car to the changing conditions. Even though the overnight rain has washed the track of rubber, we don’t anticipate any problems with tyres during the race.’ The McLarens of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard were fastest, followed by Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari.

Jordan Grand Prix