Formula 1

Belgian GP Saturday McLaren Notes

The West McLaren Mercedes team made the most of a disrupted practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix with Mika Hakkinen qualifying on Pole, his 10th this season, with a 1'50"329. Team mate David Coulthard was only just behind him with a fastest ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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The West McLaren Mercedes team made the most of a disrupted practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix with Mika Hakkinen qualifying on Pole, his 10th this season, with a 1'50"329. Team mate David Coulthard was only just behind him with a fastest lap of 1'50"484.

Mika HAKKINEN It was, as ever, a great team effort which helped me to achieve my tenth pole of the season. This is not an easy circuit and you have to find the balance not only of the car, but also of knowing where to push and where to compromise on a lap, in order to put in a quick time. The accidents that we witnessed during qualifying looked pretty serious shunts on the TV but I am very glad that both BAR drivers are fine.

David COULTHARD I enjoyed the session as the car was going well and we were constantly making improvements. However, whatever I did, Mika seemed to improve upon. I made further changes to the set up for my last run which I think would have seen me improve on my time, but I made a small mistake and that cost me the quicker lap. The start will be very important tomorrow as the first corner is notorious for incidents but ultimately the race will come down to strategy and pit stops.

Ron DENNIS A trouble free qualifying session for us. The red flags of course caused disruption to the rhythm but that was the same for everyone and fortunately I don't think that made any considerable difference to the final outcome.

Norbert HAUG A very good session for us with Mika achieving his tenth pole position of the year. David was second, just one and a half tenths of a second behind. This was a great effort by the whole team. Having not had any problems so far in Spa I hope we continue tomorrow in the same way.

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