First, a couple of addendums to yesterdays post.  Eddie Irvine was
disqualified from the session afterwards for having completed 13
laps, 1 more than the permitted maximum.  This moved everyone after
8th place up a position.  Also, apparently the reason Martini didn't
run yesterday was due to severe gear-box trouble.  I also omitted
to mention that Ukyo Katayama had a massive shunt at the 1st lesmo
and tried out their new gravel bed and tire wall at the end of the
session.

For the second session, it was again dry, and around 25 degrees.
Panis and Irvine were the first out onto the track.  Panis
improved on his time and went up to 9th.  Irvine however hit
some problem, and limped very slowly around the track and straight
back into the pits.  There was no visible damage, and we never
found out what caused it.

After a reasonably quiet first 10 or 15 minutes the Ferraris
ventured out.  Alesi took .224 off his yesterdays time, and
Berger improved slightly, but stayed in 4th.  Just as the Ferraris
were going in, both Williams appeared.  Both of them ran a couple
of tenths off yesterdays pace, and failed to make any improvement.
Panis took a spin at one of the chicanes while the Williams were 
out and was in quite a dangerous position as Hill drove past. He
kept the engine running and the marshals managed to push him
back onto the track, but he had damaged the rear suspension badly,
and had to limp back to the pits with his front right wheel waving
in the air and only touching the ground occasionally.

Dalmas had yet another spin at the first chicane, this time taking
off from the curbing, flying through the air to land very heavily
on the far side of the chicane, destroying the suspension at both
front and rear of the car, and practically losing the left front
wheel in the process.  That was the end of his qualifying session.
Then we got to watch Blundell lose it on the 2nd Lesmo from his
head-cam, to end his session beached in the gravel.

On Bergers next trip out of the pits, he ran very wide at the exit
of the third chicane, as many others (particularly Alesi) had been
doing all weekend.  Then he lost it ever so slightly and ended up 
on the far side of the curbing, picking up a lot of dirt on his
tires, and possibly damaging the plank.  After this, he went straight
back into the pits, having completed only one flying lap.

At this stage, it looked like there were two separate battles going
on -- the battle between the Williams and the Ferraris for placings
in the top four, and the battle between the other teams for 5th and
6th... The battle in the top four started again with the re-emergence
of Coulthard, who moved up into 2nd ahead of Hill.  Then the two 
Ferraris reappeared, with Alesi being the first to break into the
1:23s, followed about 30 seconds later by Berger, who put himself
into second to make it a Ferrari provisional front row...

Meanwhile the battle for 5th was furious.  First Panis, then Frentzen,
then Verstrappen moved up to 5th place.  Verstrappen apparently said
that the car had massive understeer yesterday, and at the time said
"but wait for tomorrow" (meaning today).  Lehto, by the way, was
out of sight... Strange to see the familiar orange splashes, and
those white wheels trundling slowly around to end up 20th on the
grid.  Then, just as Verstrappen was celebrating his 5th position,
up came Herbert, a full half a second quicker than Verstrappen and
only 1.1 seconds off pole position man Jean Alesi, and a two
tenths behind Hill.  At this stage it became clear that there was
no longer a 4 car battle at the front -- Herbert had made it 5,
leaving the rest of the field to battle for 6th.

Frentzen, in the mean-time lost it completely at the same place
Berger had his minor off, locked up and went hard into the armco
for a three-quarters frontal impact.  Thus ended his battle for
6th.  However, Sauber's battle didn't end there -- DeCesaris
miraculously managed to get himself ahead of Verstrappen, and
into 6th.

Then came a really fast lap from Herbert, as we followed him around
the track, he was only .3 off Alesi's time at the second split,
and finished the lap in spectaculour style to end up an amazing
3rd, behind the two Ferraris and ahead of the two Williams.  Then,
for the last 10 minutes or so of the session, out came the Williams
and a pile of other cars.  Hill managed to scape into 3rd place,
but was .4 away from the Ferraris, who remained solid on the front
row.  Coulthard had an engine blow up, and failed to improve on
his time, and moved down to 5th.  The battle for 6th was still
intense in the closing two minutes, with first Hakkinen taking
it from DeCesaris, and then Panis from Hakkinen.

The two people with no time from yesterday, Irvine and Martini
both qualified.  This left the two Pacifics as non-qualifiers.
Belmondo didn't come out this session, having destroyed his car
this morning, and Gachot had an early spin, and lost his 26th 
place as soon as Martini appeared.

So, a Ferrari 1, 2 on the Monza grid, and Herbert finally in a
competetive Lotus.

-- 
Christine.                                chogan@indigo.ccsem.infn.it
chogan@maths.tcd.ie                             cjhogan@dsg.cs.tcd.ie

If it makes goo on the windscreen, we'll call it a bug. -- Larry Wall