Winter testing gave us a little taste of what to expect during the first Grand Prix. It showed that McLaren was going fast and strong. Today they proved their strength. Both McLarens are on the first row of the grid - with Hakkinen leading the way. Summary
Winter testing gave us a little taste of what to expect during the first Grand Prix. It showed that McLaren was going fast and strong. Today they proved their strength. Both McLarens are on the first row of the grid - with Hakkinen leading the way.
Johnny Herbert clocked an excellent fifth time.
Notes
|
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.
|
Hakkinen (McLaren-Mercedes) B Coulthard (McLaren-Mercedes) B M. Schumacher (Ferrari) G Villeneuve (Williams-Mecachrome) G Herbert (Sauber-Petronas) G Frentzen (Williams-Mecachrome) G Fisichella (Benetton-Mecachrome) B Irvine (Ferrari) G R. Schumacher (Jordan-Mugen) G Hill (Jordan-Mugen) B Wurz (Benetton-Mecachrome) B Alesi (Sauber-Petronas) G Takagi (Tyrrell-Ford) G Barrichello (Stewart-Ford) B Trulli (Prost-Peugeot) B Panis (Prost-Peugeot) B Salo (Arrows) G Tuero (Minardi-Ford) B Magnussen (Stewart-Ford) B Rosset (Tyrrell-Ford)B Diniz (Arrows) B Nakano (Minardi-Ford) B 107% rule B: Bridgestone G: Goodyear |
1m 30.010s 1m 30.053s 1m 30.767s 1m 30.919s 1m 31.384s 1m 31.397s 1m 31.733s 1m 31.767s 1m 32.392s 1m 32.399s 1m 32.726s 1m 33.240s 1m 33.291s 1m 33.383s 1m 33.739s 1m 33.851s 1m 33.927s 1m 34.646s 1m 34.906s 1m 35.119s 1m 35.140s 1m 35.301s
1m 36.310s |
The Quotes
Hakkinen:" "Winning my first Grand Prix last year gave me an awful amount of confidence. It helped me relax and just concentrate on this season. It is a great way to start the season and to see the faces of the McLaren mechanics at the end was really good."
Coulthard: "I was confident I could beat him but I am reasonably happy with second."
M. Schumacher: "I expected to be in the top three and I am happy as we have improved the car a lot over the winter. Even though I am happy with the car it is not yet at the level we intended to be. We could see that McLaren were very quick in testing so we expected them to be ahead of us. Hot temperatures tomorrow should not be a problem, even for the tyres. We know we are still a bit behind but Goodyear has made a lot of progress since January and we will have a new tyre for Brazil. We have made some compromises on the car to assure reliability so I will not be disappointed if I do not win tomorrow, but we should be able to make in on the podium. We might be behind McLaren but we are ahead of the rest and even on grooved tyres our time is quicker than last year."
Hill on blocking M. Schumacher : "Schumacher did not get past until I reached the apex of the corner. I cannot vanish."
Irvine: "Once again I had an engine problem. Without that I could have been a bit quicker. We can solve the problem for the race, so I am not to worried. It is not a big issue. As I did not run on a low fuel load yesterday it took me a while to adapt to the car and find its limits. At least I am in the top half of the grid. For tomorrow it will be a case of relying on the reliability we have seen in testing."