Jon Noble's Friday Practice Report - Austrian GP

by Jon Noble

Briton David Coulthard lapped fastest in Friday's Austrian Grand Prix practice but warned that reliability would be crucial for Sunday's race.

The McLaren driver bounced back from an off-track excursion at the A1-Ring to set a fastest time of one minute 12.464 seconds and beat his team-mate and world champion Mika Hakkinen of Finland.

Hakkinen had been unable to set a lap time in the morning's first session after his car stopped out on the track and was second fastest in 1:12.711.

"The fight at the front is very close and it can go any way," said Coulthard.

"This is a track where you need the car working for you and, as a driver, you are dependent on the balance of the chassis. You can't drive around a problem here."

Hakkinen's car failure was a warning that reliability remained a concern for the team as they bid to close the gap on world championship leading German Michael Schumacher.

Coulthard, who was disqualified from second place in the Brazilian Grand Prix in March on technical grounds after also suffering gearbox problems, said mechanical troubles had already cost the team the initiative in the title chase.

"I think that we have had potentially the quicker package, but we haven't made the most out of it through bad reliability at the start of the year, plus problems in Brazil and Canada," he said.

"What that allowed Michael to do was to get a run and open up a bit of a gap at the top of the championship.

"But since Brazil, McLaren have had excellent reliability and I've just got to hope that it continues. I've never had such a good run of finishes and I just hope that doesn't change."

Schumacher Remains Unruffled

Coulthard has three wins this season -- in Britain in April, in Monaco in June and at Magny Cours in France this month -- and is 12 points behind Schumacher in the standings.

Schumacher, who ended the session fourth fastest behind the Sauber of Finland's Mika Salo, was unconcerned about the practice times as he worked on race set up.

"It is going to be a very close race and I am not worried about the difference in times," he explained.

"It is exactly what I expected before I came here and Ferrari are definitely able to qualify on the front row."

Salo was delighted with his performance as the Sauber team benefitted from work during testing last week to improve driveability.

But team boss Peter Sauber, who has yet to confirm his line-up for next season, said the team must not get too carried away with their pace.

"The car is much better after the test and we have been able to work step by step on the set-up," he said. "We have to temper our enthusiasm by reminding ourselves that this is only Friday, but it is a positive start to our weekend."

Another team enjoying a good day were British American Racing, whose drivers Brazilian Ricardo Zonta and Canadian Jacques Villeneuve ended the day in fifth and eighth positions respectively.

"The car is good, even though it doesn't actually feel very nice," said Villeneuve. "We are making good progress and we look in good shape for the race. Our reliability has been okay and that has never really been our problem."

The session was run in dry conditions, although the prediction is for rain on Saturday and Sunday.