Hakkinen rescues two points

The Finn struggled home fifth having started the race with a reasonable chance of scoring an important victory from third on the grid.

And he now leads Eddie Irvine by just two points going to the penultimate race in the world championship.

After the finish the Finn had little sympathy for teammate David Coulthard as the Scot spun into retirement while leading in conditions that saw errors up and down the pitlane.

McLaren threw away the race when Hakkinen was called into the pits for wet weather tyres before the first drops of rain had settled on the tarmac on lap 19.

Few other drivers stopped and within four laps the skies had cleared and, the track dried, and he was forced to pit again for dry grooved rubber, demoting him to 13th place, and destroying any chance of victory.

But the Finn fought back to win a difficult tussle with championship rival Eddie Irvine for seventh place and climb to fifth and take two valuable points as the Ulsterman failed to score.

In response to why he had driven so gingerly in the mid-section of the race he snapped, 'Now you understand why I was going so gently.

'The car was very difficult and to take a risk in a moment like this is not correct, that's why David went off I did not.

'I scored two points He did not. That is life.

'I was not able to push hard with those tyres because I knew I would have spun sooner or later. I am not too sad because of what happened to some of the other drivers .

'What an incredible race.' team boss Ron Dennis said.

'There were a lot of drivers and some teams whomade mistakes today. From that point of view perhaps it was a mistake to bring Mika in.

'But later we gave him opportunity to recover from very difficult position and score two points. It was great to overtake Irvine on the road.

'I don not feel anything but relief at coming out with a couple of points lead in the championship having participated in one of the best races we have seen in a long time.'