Coulthard's McLaren-Mercedes stopped the clocks at 1m26.642s in the dry, but still unseasonably cool conditions at Imola. He was followed by Ralf Schumacher's Williams-BMW (1m26.727s), his team mate Mika Hakkinen (1m26.836s) and a mightily impressive Nick Heidfeld (1m26.929s), who proved that the Ferrari-engined Sauber's form wasn't merely confined to damp conditions.

Conditions were fully dry from the start, but that didn't prevent Ralf and Hakkinen from both understeering off into the gravel. Both Prost also accomplished the feat, but within seconds of each other.

Ferrari's form may have been a disappointment to the tifosi, but it still appears to be going according to the team's gameplan. Unique among the Bridgestone runners, Ferrari has chosen the harder option of tyre, while the likes of McLaren and Jordan have taken the softer option, partly as a means to get up the front of the grid on a track difficult to overtake on.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen was seventh for Jordan-Honda, ahead of a top 10 mcompleted by Kimi Raikkonen's Sauber, Olivier Panis's BAR-Honda and the second Jordan of Jarno Trulli.

Jos Verstappen was 11th for Arrows, while Jaguar could do no better than 16th for Eddie Irvine and 21st for Luciano Burti. Benetton-Renault also struggled - as is the norm at the moment - wiith Jenson Button 19th and Giancarlo Fisichella 20th.

For full warm-up results, click here.