Coulthard looks on the bright side

The Scot put his McLaren on the outside of the front row for the fifth time
this season, just over a tenth of a second slower than the Finn.

He has admitted that if the team ask him to move over for Hakkinen, he will do so, but insisted that team orders were not an issue at present.

'I am still fighting for the championship until I hear otherwise,' he said.

'There are no instructions at the moment but there are still 24 hours to go to
the race.'

He held pole position for a short while late in the session, but Hakkinen was always able to respond with a slightly faster lap. It's a familiar story for Coulthard, who hasn't taken a pole position since the Canadian Grand Prix in June 1998.

'It would have been nice to have been on pole but now I'll have to look to
the start and see what happens there,' he said.

'Every time I go well, Mika goes a little bit quicker.

'The car was a bit better for the final run but I wasn't and I made a
couple of mistakes.

'I have to be reasonably happy because we are incredibly close.'