Formula 1

European GP McLaren Saturday notes

Mika Hakkinen Chassis 04 David Coulthard Chassis 05 T-car Chassis 01 West McLaren Mercedes driver David Coulthard will start tomorrow's Warsteiner European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring from pole position after setting a time of 1:17.529. It's ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Mika Hakkinen Chassis 04
David Coulthard Chassis 05
T-car Chassis 01

West McLaren Mercedes driver David Coulthard will start tomorrow's Warsteiner European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring from pole position after setting a time of 1:17.529. It's David's first pole since the 1998 Canadian Grand Prix and the ninth of his career. Mika Hakkinen qualified third after posting a time of 1:17.785. It began to rain slightly halfway through the session for about five minutes and the circuit never returned to its original condition.

MIKA HAKKINEN
'I'm not entirely satisfied with qualifying third but I haven't felt 100 percent comfortable with the car throughout the weekend. We have made a lot of progress and continued to do so throughout today's practice sessions and qualifying, but the car is still not performing at its optimum level. We will look at the data and find out where we can improve and look forward to the race tomorrow.'

DAVID COULTHARD
'Obviously I'm really happy to be on pole position. I was able to put in a good lap just before the rain began and even though it was a bit boring to wait for approximately 25 minutes in the garage, I was pretty sure that it would be hard to better my time. However tomorrow is another day and a lot can happen in the race, but I aim to be the first driver to win from pole position this year.'

RON DENNIS
'A good pole position from David. We were not quite able to optimise Mika's car but nevertheless a solid performance by the team in the variable weather conditions. Another few minutes would have seen the circuit completely dry and perhaps an exciting end to qualifying. In the circumstances we are reasonably pleased with our grid positions.'

NORBERT HAUG
'It was a fantastic lap by David. Mika in third place also has a good basis for a competitive race tomorrow. David and Mika are both in with a good chance of winning.'

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article European GP Friday press conference

Next article European GP Arrows race notes

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Zane Smith fined $50,000 by NASCAR for ramming Carson Hocevar after Phoenix Cup race

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

7 h

Zane Smith fined $50,000 by NASCAR for ramming Carson Hocevar after Phoenix Cup race

FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

11 h

FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned

TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 11 h

TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return

Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

11 h

Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore

Feature

Discover prime content

Why Oscar Piastri has struggled to show his best with this year's McLaren MCL40

Formula 1

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Why Oscar Piastri has struggled to show his best with this year's McLaren MCL40

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Formula 1

By Pat Symonds

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Formula 1

By Kevin Turner

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts