Mika suffers another setback to title ambitions

The former world champion, who has collected only four points from the first five races, has a good record at the A1-Ring race, though. He won the race here last year and was third the year before - both races started from pole.

But this year Hakkinen has arrived with a bad head cold, and as a result admits he is not in the best of moods.

"It was my plan to get my championship started here but I have got really bad flu at the moment," he said. "I am not felling very good and this is not a good way to start this weekend. I will just have to try and do my maximum and get 10 points hopefully, but it is going to be difficult - really, really hard."

Hakkinen narrowly missed out on claiming victory in Barcelona two weeks ago when his clutch exploded on the last lap of the Circuit de Catalunya while he was leading.

"I expected to win in Barcelona so it was obviously disappointing not to finish the Grand Prix, but I have felt all the time I could win," he added.