Coulthard Satisfied Despite Cautious Start

Scot David Coulthard is looking to a strong showing in tomorrow's final qualifying for his home Grand Prix after setting the seventh fastest time in today's first session.

"I'm reasonably happy as the times are pretty close at the top," said McLaren driver Coulthard, who admitted he took things easy during his flying lap. "I was a little bit too cautious in the first sector compared to this morning's practice, as I wasn't sure about the weather conditions.

"It was spitting with rain whilst they were recovering Rubens' (Barrichelo) car, but in the end the track was fairly dry and as a result I know there is more to come tomorrow. The main thing is to ensure that your laptime is good enough to put you in the same group as your main competitors, so you will have roughly the same track conditions in tomorrow's qualifying, which is when it really counts."

McLaren's young Finn Kimi Raikkonen, Michael Schumacher's closest title challenger, paid a heavy price for a mistake half way through his flying lap and had to make do with the 12th quickest time.

"I have struggled a bit to get comfortable with the car today, so we will be looking at where we can make improvements before tomorrow," said the Finn. "During my qualifying run I made a mistake at Stowe, which cost me a lot of time.

"However its tomorrow's session which is important, so we will wait and see what happens then."