Hakkinen on pole position

The two McLaren looked to be heading for trouble after both terminated their first runs.

The world champion had to sprint back to the pits after his car broke down at Remus Kurve on his first run at the start of the session.

Coulthard, also briefly in trouble, punched in a fast lap time of 1m11.299s after returning to the track.

But the Finn recovered to deprive the Scot of his first pole in 13 months, when he circled in 1m 10.954s with 19 minutes of the session remaining to take the 17th pole position of his career.

'The team took the engine out after practice this morning and something happened because I lost the power of the engine and I had to pull off before I got to the second corner,' said Hakkinen.

'I came back and got the T -car and got back into action. It was difficult moment and I had to keep a cool head.'

'When you get into the T-car it is a different situation. Normally the T-car is identical but more often a psychological problem than anything else so I was happy to be able to concentrate to maximise the car in qualifying.

'Great team work again and great to be on pole. I am extremely surprised the gap is so big. I expected half a second but nine-tenths is too much,' he joked.

'We had a good run Friday in race setting and have a good picture of the car for the race. This is a hard Grand Prix, a difficult one. So to have this margin is nice.

'But I'll still have to go flat out and get the maximum from this race result.'


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