End of the Road for Coulthard-Hakkinen Double Act

One last blip on the throttle, one final wave to the crowd and a chapter of Grand Prix history ended in Japan.

Two times champion Mika Hakkinen may come back in 2003 from his sabbatical year but Suzuka marked the end of the road for Formula One's longest-standing partnership. Briton David Coulthard will have a new fast Finn to contend with at McLaren next year in Kimi Raikkonen but it will be very different from the pairing who established records together.

Coulthard and Hakkinen had been together at the Mercedes-powered team since the 1996 Australian Grand Prix, 99 races ago. They claimed 33 pole positions, won 30 Grands Prix and achieved 13 one-two finishes. Coulthard will not miss being beaten or having to make way to the Finn for him to further his title challenge.

But the Scot admitted at Suzuka that life after Mika would be a wrench.

"I probably won't fully appreciate what it's like to have been a teammate for someone for so long until he's no longer my teammate," he said. "It's been a big challenge for me naturally and Mika's been my benchmark in terms of judging my own performance.

"In a way I'm disappointed that he's stepped down before I got the chance to beat him. With Kimi coming in, I'm no longer the younger guy," added Coulthard, who at 30 is nine years older than Raikkonen.

"It'll be very interesting to see the different mentality, the way of working. Mika and I are a similar age so we have been educated by the engineers in a certain way. I'm curious to know if it will be different having a younger guy there," he added.

Hakkinen made his race debut for McLaren at the end of 1993 and has been there ever since. Coulthard arrived three years later having already won a race for Williams the previous year.

Tense Moments

They have had their moments of tension and disagreements, with the Finn often seen as the "favourite son" of team boss Ron Dennis following his near-fatal crash in Australia in 1995. Coulthard said he had a photograph at home of the two of them from 1996.

"I'm spun sideways into the gravel after I thought he hit me up the back and he thought I closed the door," he said. "It's a picture of my hand sticking out of the cockpit with one finger showing."

Coulthard memorably gave way to allow Hakkinen to his first career win in Spain at the end of the 1997 season. He then did the same under a pre-race agreement in the first outing of 1998 in Australia - still the subject of banter between them.

"How come you've never bought me a dinner for giving you that win in Melbourne?," Coulthard asked at a press gathering on Saturday, before Hakkinen had allowed him to take third place in the race.

"I tell you what, that night you were so drunk you don't remember," replied the Finn with a smile, a friend off the track but a rival on it.