Montoya Predicts Tough Time for Coulthard

David Coulthard was today warned by his Colombian rival Juan Pablo Montoya to clear his mind as he faces the pressure of fighting his World Championship comeback in this weekend's European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

Coulthard is now 29 points behind World Championship leader Michael Schumacher and admitted that he is concentrating hard on his performance in qualifying after failing to get to grips with the new one-lap format introduced this year.

The Scot has been outperformed lately by teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who has claimed six podium finishes to Coulthard's one, but Montoya said: "I think David has the same speed as Kimi, it is just Kimi has done a better job in qualifying.

"When your teammate is quicker than you, you have to look at how to improve it and the position that Coulthard is in is very hard because he screwed up the last two qualifying attempts and coming here for him is going to be very hard.

"He is coming here thinking 'I must not screw up in qualifying' and when you are thinking that then you will screw up. Always, in anything you do, you think I don't want to fall there, you fall there."

Montoya, who is himself some 23 points behind Schumacher, believes that the Championship is still an open fight and insisted there is everything to play for in the second half of the season.

"This year is so weird that anybody can win," he said. "If Michael breaks down in one of the races or crashes then the story could be completely different."