Friday Second Free Practice - Austrian Grand Prix

McLaren looking strong as Coulthard Goes Fastest

At the end of the first day's free practice for Sunday's Austrian GP it was the two McLarens of David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen at the head of the field, Coulthard two tenths of a second ahead of Hakkinen who lost much of the day's practice with a mechanical fuel pump failure in the morning. Hakkinen lost a further 10 minutes this afternoon as the team finished fixing his car, but it did not stop him taking the second fastest time of the day. Both drivers were delighted with their cars, Coulthard having a brief trip across a gravel trap, which did not damage the car, but lost him time while it was cleaned out.

Salo surprises for Sauber

Mika Salo surprised everyone with the third fastest time of the session for Sauber, the Finn delighted with his car with which he reduced the downforce to improve lap times. "We are running less than last year while the engine is a lot more drivable than it was at the last race," said Salo. Pedro Diniz was also happy with his ninth fastest time. "I made a lot of changes and learned a lot for the race," said Diniz.

Ferrari fourth and seventh

Michael Schumacher was unable to better fourth fastest time despite using two sets of tyres in the session. He was taking careful note of tyre performance during the session, not wanting to have the kind of problems he had in France in the race. "The car is not perfect, but almost," said Michael. "I can be in the top four on the grid," he added.

Rubens Barrichello only used one fresh set of tyres, preferring to concentrate on balancing the mechanical grip with the aerodynamic grip of the car for the best performance. He was seventh fastest.

Zonta quickest for BAR

Ricardo Zonta set the fifth fastest time of the day for BAR running new tyres and low fuel. Jacques Villeneuve was back in eighth place preferring to work on aerodynamics and mechanical grip of his car, "which is the key to a quick lap times here," said Jacques who will be aiming for a place in the top 6 on the grid.

Trulli sixth, Frentzen 18th

"It was tempting to go for a quick time at the end," admitted Heinz Harald Frentzen after running race fuel and carrying out race testing throughout the session, which saw him back in 18th place. Trulli went for a quick lap and set the sixth fastest time, which bodes well for qualifying for the Jordan team.

In brief...

Ralf Schumacher was back in last place after just 4 laps before his Williams-BMW stopped with electrical problems. Eddie Irvine also stopped out of the track when his Jaguar had electrical problems while the Minardi of Gene had to be towed home when its engine broke. Jensen Button did not better 20th time, he too concentrating on race set-up.

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