Hakkinen predicts wild ride for pole

After two lacklustre races, and just one point, he believes he finally has a car that can take on Michael Schumacher's Ferrari.

Even though he confirmed suspicions that team mate David Coulthard ran his car light to record the fastest time on Friday, the double champion says he will still be in the scrap for pole today in Sao Paulo.

Until now, McLaren had written off its chances of being competitive until the championship returned to Europe in a fortnight, but Hakkinen believes developments fitted on the interim test car in Barcelona have significantly changed the MP4-16.

"I can see the light at the end of the tunnel," he said ahead of the third round of the world championship, where he has started on pole for the last three years. "It has been a long wait, but I am finally aiming at pole. The car seems to be pretty good and it gives me a lot of confidence for qualifying.

"Balance is the key word, though the car feels quite wild. So we have some work to do to get it right all the time. But the whole car has improved, especially the aerodynamics.

"Also this is my kind of circuit and that helps too," he said of the track where he has won twice before. "The resurfacing has made the surface better in some places, but worse in others.

"David had a light car yesterday, but I was on a race set-up. I have very positive feelings. You don't need as much downforce here, which is good for us.