Hakkinen disappointed with sixth place

Hakkinen headed into the weekend claiming his sights were set on victory and that the world championship could still be his. But a lacklustre qualifying performance was followed by a disappointing race.

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher took his fifth victory of the season as Coulthard had to settle for third, while Hakkinen trailed home 20 seconds behind Rubens Barrichello in the second Ferrari and only two seconds clear of Eddie Irvine's Jaguar at the flag.

"I am quite disappointed," said Hakkinen. "It was a disaster and a very disappointing race altogether. The start was fantastic for me and David. We got past Rubens Barrichello and we were running fourth and fifth so I was quite confident at the beginning. We were even able to hang on to Juan Pablo Montoya. I thought this is cool and let's just go for it.

"But, Montoya then started pushing and he disappeared. I also had a problem. I locked the front tyre braking for the chicane, which caused it to start vibrating. That meant I lost a lot of time. Then I had to stop too early, which meant I lost more places again and one thing turned into another."

Hakkinen also admitted he thinks the pressure on McLaren is mounting after impressive performances in the last two races have seen Williams vying for victory with Ferrari, rather than the Woking-based team.

"Obviously having two teams in front of us rather than one makes life very difficult," he said. "It puts more pressure on the team, but we have just got to understand our problems and try to fix them."