"One swallow does not make a summer," said Eddie Jordan of his team's performance in yesterday's free practice, but it was hard for the Jordan principal to keep the smile off his face as Heinz Harald Frentzen and Damon Hill outstripped both Ferraris to finish fourth and sixth in the afternoon session.

"It's great that we have two cars in the top six and it will be great if we can continue that in qualifying," he said. "But I expect it will even itself out a lot more tomorrow . . . Michael will be strong.

"Today, though, Heinz Harald was very strong. He likes this kind of circuit and proved so. Damon was on a different strategy and trying different things, but I am optimistic. It's great that the cars were reliable over the 30 laps." McLaren were predictably quickest out the blocks, with world champion Mika Hakkinen setting the pace in the morning session and continuing to shave tenths off his own fastest time in the second. However, pushing hard at the final corner, the Finn lost control and ploughed the McLaren into the hoardings, the 100 mph smash ripping both right-sided wheels off and crumpling the rear end. Team-mate David Coulthard then rescued the team's afternoon, beating Hakkinen's time 0.014 of a second. Frentzen was just over one second slower, with Hill under half a second further back. Ferrari, meanwhile, had a disastrous day with Michael Schumacher stalling the car as he exited the pit lane, Grand Prix rules forbidding him to run again during the morning session as he had crossed onto the track. In the afternoon both Schumacher and Eddie Irvine appeared to be suffering handling problems and the German finished almost 1.6 seconds behind the lead McLaren with Irvine a further second back.

The surprise package of the day was Stewart, competing with their first Gary Anderson-developed car. Rubens Barrichello claimed a late third place, just under a tenth of a second quicker than Frentzen, and Johnny Herbert was fourth, three tenths faster than Damon Hill.