Summary
Coulthard head Hakkinen on day one.
David Coulthard swapped places with his team-mate Mika Hakkinen
during this afternoon's dry session to head the McLaren double at
the end of the first day's practice for the Marlboro Hungarian
Grand Prix, the Scot the first driver to break 1m 20 secs, but
still more than five seconds off Michael Schumacher's pole time
with the Ferrari last year.
"Although we lapped quicker than last year's pole in Hockenheim, this track is a lot different and I do not expect we will get close here. Normally the second day the track is a lot cleaner and there is more grip, so I expect we will be quicker tomorrow if it remains dry and it doesn't get a lot hotter," he explained. Hakkinen was ahead half way around his last flying lap, but traffic prevented the Finn from improving his time.
Schumacher holds third place.
As the time improved dramatically on the dry track this
afternoon, Michael Schumacher's performance for the Scuderia
Ferrari Marlboro team improved accordingly, the German keeping
his third place on the time sheets and still only half a second
behind the leading McLaren pair.
"This morning showed the Goodyear rain tyres are very competitive in heavy rain. Things seemed a little bit more difficult as the rain eased off. This afternoon showed that we are in much better shape than in Hockenheim. The gap to the front runners is not too big. However, we need to see who was using new or old tyres at what point in the session, to have a clearer picture of where we stand... We are closer to the McLarens than we were in Hockenheim, but we still have a lot of work to do on the set-up," explained Schumacher.
Jean Todt stated that, "Today’s practice was different to usual because of the rain in the first hour, so we worked on both wet and dry settings. We have not completed our programme for dry conditions. The car shows good potential and there is scope for improvement."
Eddie Irvine kept his fifth place, only three tenth's off the pace of his team-mate, but found his car very hard to drive on the bumps, particularly under braking. Sometimes the bumps are so bad that it makes it hard to see the next corner," he complained. "At the corner after the bumpy downhill section I had to turn in where I thought the corner was as I could not see properly, the car was bouncing so much. We have to work hard now to find a solution. The tyres are okay and the balance of the car is quite good. The track was in worse condition than usual for a Friday afternoon as the rain meant there was no rubber put down from the morning session."
Villeneuve quick for Williams.
Despite an off course excursion early in the session, Jacques Villeneuve set the fourth fastest time of the session only a few hundredth's of a second off Schumacher's pace. He was confident of setting a good time during qualifying tomorrow after setting the fastest time overall in the second sector of the circuit. Heinz-Harald Frentzen ran 10 laps more than his team-mate but was unable to better ninth fastest time, the German again unhappy with his car's handling despite some impressive times in testing at Jerez last week.
Hill - more to come.
Although Damon Hill set the sixth fastest time of the session he said later that the time did not reflect the potential of his Jordan-Mugen Honda. "We are still a long way from a good balance," he said. Ralf Schumacher complained of no grip and understeer, the German taking another trip across the grass during the session in which he was eighth fastest. "Things should improve when there is more rubber on the track tomorrow," he said.
In Brief...
Jean Alesi was back in 13th place complaining of a lack of brake temperature and grip from his Sauber. Herbert was working on an oversteer problem and also trouble with his car's downshift which he though was due to the lack of an automatic "blip" between changes from the software. The Prost team didn't complete their programme after Trulli spun off into a gravel trap leaving Panis alone to carry out the development work. Barrichello complained that he could not find the source of a bad oversteer with his Stewart. Benetton worked on the race set-up, Wurz complaining of understeer thought to be caused by a shock absorber problem. Fisichella said he preferred the new longer wheelbase on the Benetton cars.
Timing
POS DRIVER NATION TEAM TIME
1 David Coulthard GB McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13 1:19.989 178.764 kph
2 Mika Hakkinen FIN McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13 1:20.186 + 0.197
3 Michael Schumacher GER Ferrari F300 1:20.439 + 0.450
4 Jacques Villeneuve CAN Williams-Mecachrome FW20 1:20.441 + 0.452
5 Eddie Irvine GB Ferrari F300 1:20.778 + 0.789
6 Damon Hill GB Jordan-Mugen-Honda 198 1:20.779 + 0.790
7 Giancarlo Fisichella ITA Benetton-Mecachrome B198 1:21.110 + 1.121
8 Ralf Schumacher GER Jordan-Mugen-Honda 198 1:21.198 + 1.209
9 Heinz-Harald Frentzen GER Williams-Mecachrome FW20 1:21.218 + 1.229
10 Rubens Barrichello BRA Stewart-Ford SF2 1:21.414 + 1.425
11 Johnny Herbert GB Sauber-Petronas C17 1:21.571 + 1.582
12 Jos Verstappen NED Stewart-Ford SF2 1:21.903 + 1.914
13 Jean Alesi FRA Sauber-Petronas C17 1:21.990 + 2.001
14 Mika Salo FIN Arrows A19 1:22.145 + 2.156
15 Alexander Wurz AUT Benetton-Mecachrome B198 1:22.297 + 2.308
16 Olivier Panis FRA Prost-Peugeot AP01 1:22.442 + 2.453
17 Sinji Nakano JAP Minardi-Ford M198 1:22.940 + 2.951
18 Toranosuke Takagi JAP Tyrrell-Ford 026 1:23.261 + 3.272
19 Pedro Diniz BRA Arrows A19 1:23.450 + 3.461
20 Esteban Tuero ARG Minardi-Ford M198 1:23.671 + 3.682
21 Ricardo Rosset BRA Tyrrell-Ford 026 1:25.611 + 5.622
22 Jarno Trulli ITA Prost-Peugeot AP01 1:25.700 + 5.711
Friday Practice 107% 1:25.588 + 5.599
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