Belgian GP Saturday McLaren notes

West McLaren Mercedes driver Mika Hakkinen will start tomorrow's Belgian Grand Prix from pole position after setting a time of 1:50.646. It was Mika's 26th pole position. David Coulthard' qualified in fifth place with a time of 1:51.587 after a couple of his runs were disrupted by traffic and yellow flags. Mika's pole position is McLaren's 110th and the West McLaren Mercedes team's seventh pole in the 13 qualifying sessions so far this year.

Mika Hakkinen:
'Obviously I'm pleased to take my second consecutive Belgian Grand Prix pole position. We found a good set-up to the car and the team did a great job. We improved the car throughout the qualifying and I'm optimistic for tomorrow's race.'

David Coulthard:
'In reality I only had one real run today. Two of my attempts were spoilt by traffic and in the closing minutes of the session the yellow flags at the Bus Stop chicane prevented me from improving my time as I had to lift. The balance of the car was reasonable but I was struggling for overall grip.'

Ron Dennis:
'A well deserved pole position for Mika who systematically improved his car with his engineers. David's time is a result of traffic and the impact on his set-up caused by losing track time due to a puncture yesterday and a hydraulics problem this morning.'

Norbert Haug:
'An excellent achievement by Mika. He really deserves this pole position - with an extraordinary gap of three-quarters of a second. It's a shame that David lost a possible place on the second row when he was forced to lift on his last run at the Bus Stop Chicane where there were yellow flags after a car had spun. Our basis for the race is good.'