David Coulthard has not given up hope for the world championship title. He said: "There's no way it's all over. There are 10 races to go and I know I can come back from this. I certainly don't want to slip any further behind but I'm confident I'll be closing the gap on Sunday because this is a circuit that suits me. I was quicker than Mika last year and should have won the race. Hopefully this time the luck won't be against me."

World championship leader Mika Hakkinen acknowledges this: "David is very strong, very quick and he could easily turn things around. I have to give him my respect. I believe we are going to have a big fight."

Rolls Royce has sold Cosworth to Audi (for 100 million pounds), which is part of the Volkswagen group. It is still undecided if Rolls Roys is going to be bought by BMW or Volkswagen. BMW has offered 340 million pounds for the company, but the Volkswagen bid is said to be 430 million.

Alexander Wurz has announced that he will stay with the Benetton team in 1999. The president of Daimler has stated that he and the shareholders would like to see David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen as their drivers in 1999.