At the start of the race the big question was the weather, after a very wet warm-up this morning the track was still damp, the clouds were threatening, but it was not actually raining. Some teams started on wets and some on slicks. Poor Damon had other things on his mind - seconds before the start of the warm-up lap his car was pushed back into the pits with mechanical problems - his race was to begin from the pit lane in the spare car.
At the start Jacques blasted away followed closely by Michael, Panis made a bad start and lost two places before the first corner when overtaken by Ralph and Herbert. At the end of the first lap Trulli pulled into the pits and retired.
On the second lap Ralph took the fastest time and Magnussen missed a corner but found the gravel - end of his race. A few laps later Berger's 200th Grand Prix ended the same way.
On the 12th lap Damon used the back of Nakano's car instead of brakes and both ended their races in the gravel bed. On lap 19 both Ralph and Herbert retired with mechanical problems. By now the field was completely split with the leaders (Villeneuve, Michael and Frentzen) some 27 seconds in front of fourth man Irvine.
After a round of pit stops Frentzen was first with Michael and Villeneuve just behind, then 14 seconds back to fourth place Coulthard. Jacques was not to see the lead again as he began to drop back and finally pulled into the pits and retired. Meanwhile Coulthard went in more spectacular style when his engine blew up on track.
Despite some rain near the end and the excitement of the two leaders threading themselves through the 5th - 6th battle of Alesi and Hakkinen, Michael stayed 2 to 3 seconds behind Heinz Harold. Eddie Irvine came in a reliable third 1m 18s later. .
Fastest on the day was Frentzen who popped a fast lap in the last few seconds, prior to this Michael was the most frequent holder of the top time (but ended up 5th fastest). As a dry line formed just about every serious lap became faster than the previous one. All the top times were set in the last few minutes of the session.
Jean Alesi spun off just before half time and left his car stuck in the gravel, he came out later in the spare. Both Katayama and Ralph were seen to spend extended amounts of time driving at high-speed down thre grass on the side of the track both without sliding off (world's fastest lawnmowers!!).
Frentzen put in some blinding laps in the first half of the free session. Several times he looked like sliding off the Imola track. Coulthard spun twice - once whilst avoiding Larini who was rapidly heading onto the grass. The top 6 at the half time were Frentzen (1m 24.371s), Villeneuve, Fisichella, Hakkinen, Panis and Ralph. The two Ferraris were down in 8th (Michael) and 10th (Irvine). No fun (and no laps) for Katayama as his car broke down on the first lap.
Most drivers bettered their times in the second half but the order remainded pretty much the same. Both Jordans did well and ended in 3rd (Fisichella) and 5th (Ralph). More disappointment for the two Ferraris with Irvine (6th) once again running faster than Michael (9th). Katayama did not run due to continuing problems with his car. David Coulthard only managed a few laps before destroying the car in a major off.
At the end of the first part of today's session Michael was already beating his previous year's pole with a time of 1m 25.997s followed by Panis and Herbert. Irvine was in 8th and Villeneuve 10th. Schumacher had gone out late (waiting for a clear track). Villeneuve spent his first half testing new 2 and 3 level wing designs (without much improvement), Alesi was working on a new rear suspension design, Barrichello on new aerodynamics and Hill had a new spec engine to test (work, work work). It was not all happiness though with only 5 laps (most others did 10 to 15) from Fisichella (problems with steering system) and Ralph who was plagued by understeer.
More action in the second part of the session saw both Ferraris lock up and go straight on at Rivazza, both Jordans lost it and ended up stuck in the gravel, Katayama's car gave up after 15 minutes, Berger went straight on at Alta, Panis spun beautifully, Villeneuve lost 15 minutes with accelerator problems, Hakkinen had electronics problems, both Tyrells had engine problems and Frentzen was reported as being finally happy with his configuration (although he only managed 7th overall - in a Williams!).
But as Jean Todt (Team Manager of Ferrari) said today in an interview - "Today is only Friday and the times do not mean a great deal, we still have a lot of work to do to find the best settings for qualifying and the race".