Hakkinen Ready to Fight for Win

McLaren have earned an enjoyable Saturday night after scoring second and third positions in qualifying for the British Grand Prix, with both their drivers holding pole at some point during the session.

Mika Hakkinen, who had led the pack for several laps, finished just eight-tenths of a second behind Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, and will line up next to the German on the front row of the grid on Sunday. The Finn, who has only scored nine points so far this year, was confidence of scoring his first Grand Prix win in almost a year.

"It has been a long time being this close to pole so I am very pleased, mainly because the performance of the car was very good," said Hakkinen. "I think I lost time in the last two corners because I was stuck behind the Benetton, but I don't know if this is true.

"I am confident for tomorrow. The performance in the car is very consistent and looking at performance on tyres from Friday I think we are strong. It definitely showed us we can perform in the rain, and we should be very strong in the rain if it rains tomorrow. I have never won the British Grand Prix so I would like to win."

Hakkinen's teammate David Coulthard ended third, despite struggling with the wet conditions, but expressed his desire to have made the front row. The Scottish driver is positive about the race but admits that the weather and general conditions will have a definite effect on the outcome.

"I'm not actually too disappointed," said Coulthard. "You get your one chance, I wasn't as well balanced as I would have liked. Front row's always an advantage, but we will have to wait and see what the weather brings us and what the strategy brings us.

"You set the car up on the basis of it being a dry race and if it's wet you change it to the wet set up - one or the other. I don't want changing conditions because that is very difficult. But I am as curious as everyone here as to what will happen."