Timothy Collings' Friday Practice Report - Hungarian GP

McLaren drivers David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen warmed up for their record 77th race together in Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix by setting the fastest times during opening practice on Friday.

Britain's Coulthard clocked a best time of 1:18.792 to outpace Finland's defending champion Hakkinen by just one-tenth of a second.

They head the Ferrari pairing of championship leader Michael Schumacher and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello.

"It is great for Formula One and for our team to be in our record 77th Grand Prix together," said Coulthard. "We have had a good time, but I think it has been better for Mika as he has won two world championships.

"But I am out to win this race on Sunday if I can and I hope we can go on and establish some more records before the end of the season."

Coulthard and Hakkinen lie only two points behind Schumacher in the title race and both hope to work together to overhaul the record, set by Brazilian Ayrton Senna and Frenchman Alain Prost, of 25 victories together while they were at McLaren.

Coulthard and Hakkinen have won 24 races between them.

"When two drivers are together as long as we are it creates a good team spirit and it makes it difficult for other people on the outside to upset us on the insdie," said Coulthard.

'Great Teammate'

Hakkinen was also happy to see the landmark 77th race together approaching. "David has been a great teammate to me and I think I have been good for him," he said. "Maybe we should have a cake to celebrate."

While they relaxed after leading the times, their nearest rivals from FErrari were working on ways of improving their times for Sunday's race.

After two successive first-lap crashes in his last two outings, Schumacher is in desperate need of a result to retain his season-long leadership in the drivers' title race.

"It was a pretty average Friday," said Schumacher. "We have not yet found the optimum set-up for the car and we need to analyse the data, but I am still confident we can be competitive here.

"As usual the track is dusty and had a lot more grip in the second period when it had been cleaned up. Of course, I dont think our rivals are going to make it easy for us -- but we are not going to take it easy for them either."

Schumacher added that he welcomed the extra stimulation of a close championship fight. "It makes it much more satisfying when you win in the end," he said.

The two top teams dominated the day as they have the season, leaving Italians Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella, driving for Jordan and Benetton respectively, to take fifth and sixth places more than a second off the pace set by Coulthard.