Qualifying - Austrian GP

Saturday July 24th, 1999

Hakkinen claims seventh pole of the season

Despite parking his McLaren-Mercedes race chassis just two corners into the qualifying session when the engine lost power, Mika Hakkinen hitched a lift back to the pits and took over his spare chassis to take his seventh pole position of the season and the 17th of his F1 career. "We changed something on the engine and it lost power. I thought it was all over, but then I thought there is still 50 minutes to go, keep calm and do the job in the T-car which should be the same anyway," said Hakkinen.

Coulthard came in after one lap, " To check and reset an electronic problem," said the Scot, who then went back out to set the second quickest time to make it an all McLaren front row.

Irvine heads row two for Marlboro-Ferrari

Eddie Irvine took third place for Scuderia Ferrari-Marlboro half way through the session, but was disappointed to be a full second behind his rivals. "I should have been only less than a second away. The car was well balanced and handling well, but I had a problem with the brake temperatures since this morning when you are doing longer runs. The fronts and rears were locking up, but never in the same way into the same corner, so I could not go in as deep under braking as I wanted to and that cost me the extra time," said Eddie.

Mika Salo took seventh place on the grid in his first race for Ferrari. " I am not disappointed to be seventh. It's a very hard track to get the most out of the car and I do not have the confidence yet to push to the maximum. It's getting better all the time though, which is encouraging," he said.

Frentzen fourth for Jordan

Heinz Harald Frentzen was delighted and surprised to have taken a fourth place time for Jordan on his final run when the track was not as quick. "I also lost a couple of tenth's on the final sector with a slight mistake, although it would not have made any difference to my grid position," he said after improving the balance of his chassis since the morning. Damon Hill, fastest yesterday, ended up a disappointed 11th to-day, unable to maintain his Friday form.

Third row to Stewart-Ford

Rubens Barrichello and Johnny Herbert claimed the third row for the Stewart-Ford team , Barrichello hoping to have done better on his last run, but delayed by traffic. Herbert felt he was on top of things for the first time this year, his best run spoiled by a yellow flag for Zonta.

In brief...

Williams, who had been trying steel brakes this morning reverted back to carbon for qualifying. However, Schumacher didn't get a good lap together and could not better eighth, while Zanardi couldn't better 14th fastest. Jacques Villeneuve got his BAR into the top ten with ninth spot, but Zonta's day ended in a gravel trap after he locked up and went off on his final run leaving him in 15th place. Sauber dropped well of the pace. Diniz was 16th and Alesi 17th, but had to use his spare car when his race chassis had engine problems. De La Rosa had to use his spare car when his race Arrows blew up its engine on his first flying lap.

Pos  Driver        Team                 Time                   
 1.  Hakkinen      McLaren Mercedes     1:10.954   219.134 kmph
 2.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes     1:11.153   + 0.199     
 3.  Irvine        Ferrari              1:11.973   + 1.019     
 4.  Frentzen      Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:12.266   + 1.312     
 5.  Barrichello   Stewart Ford         1:12.342   + 1.388     
 6.  Herbert       Stewart Ford         1:12.488   + 1.534     
 7.  Salo          Ferrari              1:12.514   + 1.560     
 8.  R.Schumacher  Williams Supertec    1:12.515   + 1.561     
 9.  Villeneuve    BAR Supertec         1:12.833   + 1.879     
10.  Wurz          Benetton Playlife    1:12.850   + 1.896     
11.  Hill          Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:12.901   + 1.947     
12.  Fisichella    Benetton Playlife    1:12.924   + 1.970     
13.  Trulli        Prost Peugeot        1:12.999   + 2.045     
14.  Zanardi       Williams Supertec    1:13.101   + 2.147     
15.  Zonta         BAR Supertec         1:13.172   + 2.218     
16.  Diniz         Sauber Petronas      1:13.223   + 2.269     
17.  Alesi         Sauber Petronas      1:13.226   + 2.272     
18.  Panis         Prost Peugeot        1:13.457   + 2.503     
19.  Badoer        Minardi Ford         1:13.606   + 2.652     
20.  Takagi        Arrows TWR           1:13.641   + 2.687     
21.  de la Rosa    Arrows TWR           1:14.139   + 3.185     
22.  Gene          Minardi Ford         1:14.363   + 3.409     

All timing unofficial


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