It rained almost all night in Buenos ...

Published on 11 April 1998 by Verstappen Info Page

It rained almost all night in Buenos Aires and so the first free Saturday practice session started out on a very wet circuit. During the session the weather was dry so towards the end of the session the track dried up and times improved. Fisichella, Panis, Ralf Schumacher, Coulthard, Hakkinen and Hill were the first ones to get on the track. After 3 laps Fisichella set a time of 1:50.975 before spinning his car. After 15 minutes teammate Wurz parked his car in a gravel trap and didn't drive anymore for the rest of the session. Michael Schumacher took the lead in the session with a time of 1:48.712.

In the final ten minutes of the session the times went down rapidly. At first it was Damon Hill who took the lead with a time of 1:46, followed by Diniz and Herbert. Eventually the best time was set by Heinz-Harald Frentzen with 1:39.809, followed by Alesi with 1:40.224 and Panis with 1:41.260. For a complete overview of the times you can take a look at our season page.