Four practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—two on Friday, and two on Saturday. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions each lasted an hour. The third and final practice sessions were held on Saturday morning and lasted 45 minutes. In the first practice session, held on a slippery track surface, Häkkinen set the fastest lap of 1 minute and 32.768 seconds, followed by Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, David Coulthard, Jacques Villeneuve, Ralf Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jos Verstappen, Eddie Irvine and Alexander Wurz. During the session, Ricardo Zonta and Heidfeld spun into a gravel trap beside the circuit, Johnny Herbert's car had a possible engine failure that cut out its ignition system, and Michael Schumacher's driving was curtailed due to the on-board television camera mounted atop of his Ferrari melting a wiring loom. Although he removed the left-rear wheel of his car in an sideways accident at the fast sweeping turn 14 midway through the second practice session because he missed the braking point, Michael Schumacher recorded the day's fastest lap of 1 minute and 32.130 seconds. Coulthard was second and Barrichello third. The rest of the top ten were Häkkinen, Villenueve, Pedro Diniz, Frentzen, Wurz, Zonta and Irvine.