News items:
Mercedes announced yesterday that they will leave Sauber at the 
end of this season.

Schumacher is quoted in the British press as having said:
"Senna would have been driving rings around me, which tells
you what I think of Hill as a driver".


Qualifying Report:
It was a dry day in Jerez for Friday's qualifying session.
Michael Schumacher had been fastest in the morning, but the
earlier leader of the qualifying session was Rubens Barrichello,
ahead of Frentzen and Nigel Mansell.  With 5 minutes gone,
Frentzen takes provisional pole with a 1.24.184.  Irvine
moves into second place .783 slower than Frentzen and Mansell
moved ahead of Barrichello, back into 3rd place.

Katayama was in 6th when he had a massive engine blow-up.
Despite the fact that he was less than a third of the way
around the track, it looked for a while like he was going to 
try to limp back to the pits.  He left a large, long trail of
oil on the track, before deciding to give up and pull off.
As a result of all this all everyone went back to the pits
and the session was red-flagged while the marshalls had a 
look at the damage.  The didn't do anything with it, however,
and after about 10 minutes, during which time Katayamas car
was brought back to the pits, the green flag appeared again.
At this point we were 12 minutes into the session and the
positions were as follows:

1.  Frentzen 1.24.184   2.  Irvine +.783  3.  Mansell +1.008
4.  Barrichello +1.142  5.  Panis +1.940  6.  Katayama +2.120
7.  Schiatarella +6.873  8. Bernard  9.  Gachot
Neither Bernard nor Gachot had completed a flying lap - just
an in-out lap.

It was a full 10 minutes after the green flag appeared before 
the first cars ventured out onto the track again, everyone
seeming reluctant to be the person to clean the oil off the
racing line.  Alboretto was the first out, followed by Hill
a few seconds later.  This was Hill's first time out this
afternoon.  Blundell then ventured out too.

On his first flying lap, Hill nearly lost it at the first
corner, braking too late, and losing a bit of time.  At
the first split he was +.418 off Frentzen's time, and
+1.043 off it at the second, finishing the lap +1.098 off,
which put him into 4th place.  On the second flying lap he
was 4 tenths off Frentzen's time at the 2nd intermediate,
and +.558 at the end, which put him second ahead of Irvine.
He then backed off for a lap, before going for another fast
one, on which he was -.171 ahead of Frentzen's time at the
first intermediate, but +.241 off it at the second, and
+.103 off at the end of the lap, leaving hime with an
improved time, but no improvement in position.  He then
went back to the pits, with 6 laps completed and 30 minutes
left in the session.

As Hill came back into the pits, Zanardi, DeCesaris (who
was 11th this morning), Brundle, Bernard and Alesi all came
out in rapid succession.  On Alesi's first flying lap he
nearly lost it coming into the first corner - same place
as Hill, and doing the same thing.  The car was all over
the place, and his 1st and 2nd intermediate times were
+.865 and +1.650 respectively.  He seemed to back off about
half way around the lap, and finished at +1.828 off the
pace which put him into 6th.

At this point the standings were as follows:
Frentzen, Hill, Irvine, Mansell, Barrichello, Alesi, Brundle,
Panis, Katayama, DeCesaris, Fittipaldi, Herbert, Martini,
Blundell, Morbidelli

Hakkinen then came out for the first time.  At the first
intermediate he was +.015 off the pace, but he was really
pushing, and got the cvar partially off the track, collecting
a lot of dust and finished the lap +1.634 off the pace, to
take 6th place.  Both Benettons appeared out for the first
time at this point, and Verstappen lost the rear of his car
and had a heavy impact into a tyre wall before he completed
a flying lap.  This was the end of his session, and he ended
up as one of the potential non-qualifiers.

On Schumacher's first flying lap he was +.222 off at the
second intermediate, and +.023 off Frentzen's time at the
end of the lap, which gave him provisional 2nd place.
Mansell then improved his time, but is now down in 5th place
on the provisional grid, having been demoted also by
Barrichello.

Schumacher's next lap was taken at a slow pace, and he picked
up some dust that had been laid on the track by someone else
going off.  On his 3rd flying lap he was -.112 faster at the
first intermediate, but +.312 slower at the second, and +.347
off the pole time at the end.  During this lap his car seemed
to have very little grip in some of the corners.  He then
returned to the pits as Fittipaldi was out, in 15th place,
and Irvine came back out.  Martini was also on the track at this
point.

Irvine moved up to 4th place, and then Barrichello beat him 
again, to move up to 4th with +.376 and +.683 at the two split
points and a time +.516 off Frentzen's at the end.

Hill came out again now and was -.180 quicker at the first
intermediate, -.003 at the second, and -.047 quicker at the
end of the lap, to finally take provisional pole from Frentzen,
with only 6 and a half minutes left in the session.  Hill then
backed off for the next lap.  Mansell was also out at this 
stage, but hit traffic on his last flying lap, although it
was only Berger and Schumacher, who both pulled over to let
him by.  Still, he was +.881 at the second intermediate, and
+.834 at the end of the lap, to leave him in 6th place behind
the two Jordans.

Frentzen now appeared back on the track, having been sitting 
back relaxing, watching the monitor for the 56 minutes since 
he set his previous fastest time.

Schumacher was +.523 off Hill's time on his first flying lap
of this set, having been let past by Mansell, who was on his
way back to the pits.  Hill was also on his way back to the
pits when one of the Minardis was beside him, and for no
apparent reason pulled across into the side of Hill, bumping
tires, and forcing Hill briefly off the track.

Schumacher then did a slow lap, and on what would be his final
lap was going all out when he hit a bit of traffic (a Lotus)
and ended up only +.077 off Hills time, which left him in
provisional third.

The final standings were:
Hill, Frnetzen, Schumacher, Barrichello, Irvine, Mansell,
Berger, Alesi, Hakkinen, Panis, DeCesaris, Martini, Brundle,
Blundell, Morbidelli, Fittipaldi, Herbert, Katayama, Alboretto,
Zanardi, Comas, Bernard, Brabham, Noda, Schiaterella, Gachot.
Provisional non-qualifiers:
Belmondo, Verstappen.

-- 
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