Saturday 25 July 1998
Saturday free practice
WEATHER CONDITIONS: warm and overcast

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Coulthard and Hakkinen first and second
The McLaren-Mercedes of David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen set the fastest
two times in this morning's free practice session here at the A1-Ring.
Using the harder option Bridgestone tyre choice, the two McLaren drivers
finished the session 0.1sec apart and some 0.8sec ahead of Eddie Irvine's
third place Ferrari F300s. Coulthard was generally quite happy although he
admitted that he was finding slight understeer and graining problems when
he switched to new tyres. Hakkinen had no problems to report and was quite
happy with his car.

Irvine third for Ferrari
Eddie Irvine set third fastest time, two places ahead of his team-mate
Michael Schumacher. The Ferrari team carried out comparative tyre testing
and is expected to opt for the harder of the two compounds. Schumacher had
a slight off-track excursion at turn eight.

Frentzen splits the Ferraris
Heinz-Harald Frentzen split the Ferraris with a promising fourth fastest
time, the German driver quite pleased with the feel of his FW20. Jacques
Villeneuve wound up tenth fastest after running over a kerb and damaging a
front wing end plate on his car.

Alesi sixth for Sauber
Jean Alesi reported that the handling balance of his Sauber-Petronas was
very good after setting sixth fastest time on the softer of the available
Goodyear tyre options despite a brief trip across a gravel trap. Johnny
Herbert was less happy, worried about an abrupt transition from oversteer
to understeer, and could only manage 12th fastest time.

Hill's Jordan seventh
Damon Hill's Jordan Mugen Honda posted seventh fastest time, both he and
team-mate Ralf Schumacher running their cars without bargeboards after
slight problems with engine and gearbox overheating on Friday. Ralf also
reported lack of grip and engine power on his way to ninth fastest time.

Benettons have troubled session
The Benetton-Playlifes of Giancarlo Fisichella and Alexander Wurz both had
troubled sessions, ending up eighth and 13th fastest respectively after
each driver took a trip across a kerb onto the edge of a gravel trap. They
complained of excessive understeer and never ran a full qualifying set-up.

Briefly:
Jarno Trulli had a satisfactory session with his Prost-Peugeot, but Olivier
Panis suffered major rear-end problems_Toranosuke Takagi spun off at turn
two and could not continue while team-mate Ricardo Rosset also had a spin
but managed to continue_Mika Salo had fuel injector problems on his Arrows
while both Stewart-Fords had problems with their rear wing supports which
failed during the course of the session.

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Saturday 25 July 1998
Saturday qualifying
WEATHER CONDITIONS: torrential rain initially, then slowly drying

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Fisichella takes first career pole
Giancarlo Fisichella took the first pole position of his career when he
qualified his Benetton Playlife B198 0.719s ahead of Jean Alesi's Sauber
here at the A1-Ring this afternoon as the track progressively dried out in
the closing moments of what had originally been monsoon conditions at the
start of the hour-long session. Fisichella used two sets of hard wets
before switching onto soft wets at the end. By contrast Alexander Wurz was
never at home in the changing conditions and had to settle for an extremely
disappointing 17th on the grid for his home Grand Prix.

Alesi second for Sauber
Jean Alesi was delighted to have taken second place for the Sauber-Petronas
team, switching onto intermediate rubber just before the end of the
session. It worked perfectly and he briefly held pole position before
Fisichella pipped him right at the end. Johnny Herbert was a disappointed
18th after being told to let Alesi past at one point, but he eased off so
much to wait for the Frenchman that his tyre temperatures dropped away just
when he was trying to set a quicker lap.

Hakkinen takes third
Mika Hakkinen took third place on the grid with a superb run in the closing
stages of the session, although the team admitted that he took his final
run fractionally too early from the viewpoint of challenging for pole.
David Coulthard, by contrast, timed his intermediate runs badly and could
only qualify 14th after a quick spin in the closing stages.

Schumacher's Ferrari fourth
Michael Schumacher's Ferrari F300 qualified fourth, the German driver
admitting that he made two key mistakes - waiting too late to switch to
intermediates, and then going out too late on his final run. Eddie Irvine
wound up eighth fastest after staying on full wet rubber throughout the
session.

Barrichello fifth for Stewart
Rubens Barrichello's Stewart-Ford qualified fifth, the Brazilian admitting
that he had been out on the track with the right tyres at the right time.
Team-mate Jos Verstappen did not time his run quite so well, fading to 12th
in the closing stages after running as high as third with only three
minutes of the session left.

Salo sixth for Arrows
Mika Salo did an excellent job to qualify sixth but admitted that he might
have gone even quicker had he not come up behind Herbert in the closing
moments of the session, Pedro Dinix wound up 13th after a couple of
off-track excursions.

Frentzen quickest Williams
Heinz-Harald Frentzen qualified seventh in the Williams FW20 after the team
took a fraction too long to switch from wets to intermediates at the final
stop, while Jacques Villeneuve took the spare car to qualify 11th after
spinning his own race car into a gravel trap.

Jordans ninth and 15th
Ralf Schumacher qualified ninth in his Jordan Mugen Honda, but Damon Hill
was mistakenly called in with one lap left of his allowance and wound up a
frustrated 15th as a result.

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