Massa improved the balance on his Sauber but had excessive oversteer through turns two and four and managed eleventh. Panis took twelfth. He was ahead of McNish in the slower of the two Toyotas and his car developed intermittent issues with his electronics. Sato in the faster Jordan followed in 14th place and was disappointed with his performance as he struggled with an excessive amount of oversteer throughout qualifying. He was followed in the time sheets by Frentzen who was suffering from understeer which caused him to lose time in the circuit's first sector. de la Rosa drove the spare Jaguar monocoque for two laps and did two further laps in his repaired race car; he said his race car felt better balance but was delayed on his final run which restricted him to 16th. Irvine said he picked up understeer in the one-hour session and had difficulty of accelerating out of corners; these issues meant he could only take 17th. He was in front of Fisichella in the slower Jordan. Villeneuve managed 19th and was unable to find a suitable car set-up and his car had become slower. The two Minardi drivers qualified in the 20th and 22nd positions with Mark Webber quicker than Alex Yoong; they were separated by Bernoldi who had balance problems.