  We study the dynamics of formation and decay of a condensate of microcavity
polaritons. We investigate the relationship between the number of particles,
the emission's linewidth and its degree of linear polarization which serves as
the order parameter. Tracking the condensate's formation, we show that, even
when interactions are negligible, coherence is not determined only by
occupation of the ground state. As a result of the competition between the
coherent and thermal fractions of the condensate, the highest coherence is
obtained some time after the particle number has reached its maximum.
