Coulthard Plays Down Landmark Figure

David Coulthard will have little time for celebration this weekend as he marks his 150th Grand Prix at the Nurburgring with a gritty determination not to be left behind in the race for the Formula One drivers' World Championship or outperformed again by teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

The 32-year-old Scot, whose 13th and last victory came at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, is 29 points behind Championship leader Michael Schumacher in this year's title race and 26 behind Raikkonen.

At this rate, he could be 'riding shotgun' for his McLaren teammate in the Championship before the summer is out. But Coulthard, sixth in the opening qualifying for the European Grand Prix and a second slower than Raikkonen, showed no signs of defeatism as he reflected on his prospects.

"It doesn't really mean anything, but I hope that I am a better driver when I've done another 150 more!" he quipped. "It's gone by so fast. I hope I get a lot more races because I'm certainly getting to grips with certain parts of the job, and not with others! It doesn't feel a long time. But we do a lot of Grands Prix now and it soon mounts up."

World Champion Michael Schumacher's resurgence, with four wins in the last five races, coupled with the two big crashes suffered by McLaren in testing recently, had delayed the introduction of their new MP4-18 at least until the British Grand Prix at Silverstone next month.

Rising concern was apparent, but Raikkonen's vim and Coulthard's cool professionalism appear to have helped them paper over any cracks at a critical period as the season passes its half-way mark.

"Obviously, you want to be fastest in every session, but the important thing really is qualifying on Saturday," said Coulthard. "Our goal today (Friday) was to be in the same group as our main opposition, not to do anything too risky and to do a safe lap without pushing too hard."