Vifth pole in a row for Häkkinen.

Published on 29 May 1999 by

The teams expected that the track would become faster during the afternoon so most teams remained inside at the beginning of the training. Frentzen and Alesi were the first with a real attempt with Alesi fastest in 1:22.388.

After 10 minutes more cars enter the track with Irvine 0.017 sec behind Alesi and Villeneuve on third. Schumacher entered his first run after 15 minutes, however he also was not able to improve Alesi's time at that moment, nor could Häkkinen, and clocked the fourth time at that moment.

While the track was getting warmer and warmer due to the sun, Michael Schumacher was the first to improve Alesi's time to 1:22.244, not for long since Irvine drove 1:22.219. The differences were very small, as we have seen before on the circuit.

It looked as if Häkkinen would not be able to take pole, however on his third attempt in a very fast third section he clocked 1:22.088 which was fastest overall, so he took his fifth pole in a row. Irvine, Coulthard, Schumacher, Alesi and Jacques Villeneuve followed him.