European GP Saturday McLaren notes

Chassis Numbers: Mika Hakkinen: MP4 - 14/04 David Coulthard: MP4 - 14/06 T.Car: MP4 - 14/05

West McLaren Mercedes drivers David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen will start from second and third positions on the grid for tomorrow's race. David took second place with a 1:20.176 with Mika just two tenths behind on 1:20.376.

DAVID COULTHARD 'I think today's qualifying was a good session to watch on the television but I think for all the teams and all the drivers it was a bit frustrating. You didn't know when to go out, how much fuel to run or when to change tyres - it all became a lottery - but as always we tried to make the best of the situation. The engineers took the right decisions in the circumstances and kept a good set up for the car and it worked in my favour. '

MIKA HAKKINEN 'I wasn't too worried about the rain as the car is so good that I knew that we would be competitive. Of course the changeable conditions made life quite difficult and to be third on the grid is always disappointing, but I think we did the best we could today and we should be happy about the result. Naturally we hope that the weather will hold good for the race, but I feel confident that we have a car with good set ups for any weather condition.'

RON DENNIS 'Whilst this type of qualifying is somewhat of a lottery, you are still able to minimise the odds. We had to cover our main opposition but at the same time make every effort to be on pole. We compromised the set up for the conditions which along with the usual end of qualifying traffic only saw us achieve second and third places on the grid. Which is not so bad in the circumstances.'

NORBERT HAUG 'A thrilling qualifying session today which was only decided in the dying minutes. David and Mika have a good basis from which to start the race. Congratulations to Heinz-Harald Frentzen for his first pole of the season.'