Free Practice 2: DC first, Salo the surprise
David Coulthard put in another dominant performance to beat his McLaren team-mate Mika Hakkinen to the top time of the day at the A1-Ring. The surprise of the session, however, came from Sauber's Mika Salo, who drove into third place ahead of championship leader Michael Schumacher
Once again, the gremlins struck early in the session when Ralf Schumacher's Williams-BMW stopped with electrical problems five minutes in. As the track rose in temperature, the BAR-Hondas rose to the top of the time sheets, with Jacques Villeneuve ahead of his team-mate Ricardo Zonta, who had a minor spin at the Remus Kurve.
After a trip onto the gravel, Coulthard took the top spot with 25 minutes of the session to go, and never lost it. When Hakkinen - who failed to complete a lap in the first session - finally made it onto the track, he soon took his expected position in the upper reaches of the time sheets, but couldn't top Coulthard, who improved lap after lap, to eventually finish with a time of 1m12.464s. Salo was always thereabouts, but he put in a quick lap towards the end and managed to push Schumacher's Ferrari into fourth.
The Jordans of Jarno Trulli and Heinz-Harald Frentzen looked to be struggling, and regularly understeered over the kerbs - the pair finished 6th and 18th respectively. Zonta maintained his good form from the first session, finishing fifth overall, three places ahead of Villeneuve.
Jaguar had a torrid time, with Herbert finishing 16th and Eddie Irvine 21st. Struggling with technical problems, the Irishman nearly took Coulthard out as he slowed and cut across the Scot. Continuing the British theme at the wrong end of the grid, Jenson Button, who has set himself a target of scoring points this weekend, could manage only 20th in his Williams-BMW.
For full results of practice session 2 click here.
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