Don't discount Irvine

despite being outqualified by both McLarens, a Jordan, and his teammate
Mika Salo.

The Ulsterman came down to earth with a bump after his
battling victory at
last Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix but insisted: 'We can still
win.'

The biggest blow, though, will be that he was outperformed by
Salo who only joined Ferrari three weeks ago to deputise for the injured Michael Schumacher. Irvine has been with the team for three and a half years.

He went off the circuit on his first qualifying run and was
caught in
traffic when he made a last ditch attempt to lift himself
onto the front
row in the final minutes of the session.

Hakkinen anxiously watch the television monitor from the
McLaren pits but
the Ulsterman was caught in traffic and almost went off the
track as he
veered left to overtake a dithering Benetton.

'I am pleased to be closer to Mika than we could have been
potentially. I
still think we can win,' said Irvine, who goes into the race
trailing
Hakkinen by just two points.

'Maybe we can hassle the McLarens. If I make a good start I
could be on the
McLaren's tail straight away,' he suggested.

'We have not got everything we could out of the car in
qualifying. There is
a lot to come. We have got to make more effort for
qualifying.

'The brakes are a big issue and I don't think we are on top
of the
problem.'

Asked about Hakkinen's run of eight pole positions in 10
races he said:

'Mika is sitting on rocket, but no-one would dispute he is
doing a good job. There is no question about that.'