21 minutes of the qualifying session passed before the first driver, Bernoldi, came on the track. Marques spund off the track, followed by Villenuve. David came out three minutes later but went straight back into the back after the warm up lap, which is NOT a good sign from the McLaren Team. Mika Häkkinen came out first time 28 minutes after the session's start, with Schumi in his very ass. However, none of them made a very good time, Mika on a temporarily fift, and Schumi over three seconds slower than than Trulli, whom at this point had the pole. Schumi and Häkkinen took a second fast lap immediately after the first unsuccesful attempt, during which Rubens took pole, and Mika gained a third place, while Schumi made an unbelievable time -0,6 seconds faster than his Team Mate, now taking pole. David's second try gave him 8th position +1,198 slower than Schumi, showing that McLaren still has a lot of work to do. Ralf Schumacher took pole, but was quickly beaten by his own Team Mate, Pablo Montoya.
18 minutes before session stopped, Mika came out again but due to traffic  he couldn't improve his lap time, and neither could Schumi of same reasons. Villeneuve gave it a try again, but once again he went off the track. Mika's third attempt, four minutes before the session stopped, had no change from the previous one, he was stuck behind three cars this time, and so was everyone else. Verstappen went off the track in front of Schumi and Schumi lost control of his car himself and went off too. The session stopped without any improvements, so tomorrow's starting grid looks like this: Schumi, Montoya, Ralf and Rubens. The McLaren cars finally had to settle with 7th and 8th, the last one to Mika.

Mika's comment after the qualifying session: "I’m really disappointed with the outcome of qualifying. For the conditions in qualifying we weren’t able to further improve on the balance we had this morning. On my last run, I experienced an engine problem, but in the race anything can happen as we have seen in previous years, so now we have to focus on getting everything right for tomorrow".
Comment Of The Day by Ron Dennis: "Sometimes you get it right and most times we do – this was one of the rare cases where we got it wrong" (you can say that again!)

The race started today leaving four cars in the starting grid, among them our Flying Finn, Mika Häkkinen. With a broken car in the final lap two weekends ago, and with a car that doesn't even start this weekend, one must wonder if someone's sabotaging Mika's chances of participating in the Championship battle, or is he just the single most unlucky guy in Formula One?
Schumi had a normal start as usual, and was therefor passed by both Williams cars, which were very fast today, Montoya taking the lead, followed by Ralf. The McLaren pit team tried to get Mika started again, but didn't succeed before the other drivers had gone nearly four laps, and Mika also returned to the pit after one lap, retiring for good. Trulli (one of the Jordan cars that stayed in the grid after start) also rejoined the race, but he went off the track while passing one of the Jaguar cars, and finally he retired when he received a 10 seconds penalty for leaving the pit with a red light in lap 15. When Ralf made a small driving mistake and went off the track, his brother passed him, and Ralf even had to go to the pit to fix his car, losing many positions. Shortly after this he retired completely, leaving his team mate fighting against the Ferrari devils. Both Schumi and Rubens tried numerous times to pass Montoya from both sides, even at the same time, creating many exciting moments, when finally Schumi took a chance and almost passed Montoya from the outer side, but when they got closer to the corner, Montoya gained his lead back and refused to back off. But with the speed he had, he couldn't turn and drove straight out in the sand, forcing Schumi to follow. They could both continue but as 7th and 8th. Both Panis and Kimi Räikkænen let Schumi pass rather easily. Montoya had to retire in lap 41 due to car problems after the off-track incident.
Schumi and Kimi went both in to their only pit stop in lap 46, but Kimi's pit stop lasted over 18 seconds because of a back tyre refusing to cooperate, but he managed to keep his fourth position, though.
Rubens went to pit a few laps later, and finally it looks like McLaren have learned a little something from Ferrari's strategy. For the second time this year they kept their driver on the curcuit as long as possible, and David pulled a few fast laps with lighter car, so he was able to keep his leading position when he returned from the pit in lap 49. Villeneuve received a 10 seconds penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
After the very last corner of the final lap, on the long straight before start/finish, the Ferrari Team Order kicked in and Schumi passed Rubens just meters before goal. One might feel sorry for the Brazilian, but on the other hand, Ferrari has never made a secret of Schumi being their one and only star. Which is also why many drivers refuse to sign up with Ferrari. They know they will never have the chance of winning a GP, let alone the Championship, teaming with Schumi, unless the talented German can't get to goal first himself! David took his third victory this season and shared the pole with the Ferrari Team Mates. The Finnish driver, Kimi Räikkönen, came in on an excellent fourth.
Only 11 cars made it to finishing line today. The cars not classified were: Häkkinen, Frentzen, Trulli, Ralf, Button, De La Rosa, Montoya, Alonso, Bernoldi, Marques and Fisichella.

Mika's comment after the race: "I must admit that I’m extremely disappointed. We are still not sure exactly what the problem was – it could be technical or it could be me. We will have to look at all the data but no matter what it means that my chances of winning the Championship are now somewhat reduced".

An interesting fact:A1 Ring has the quickest lap time of all the current Formula One circuits.

Map of A1 Ring