French GP McLaren qualifying notes

Mika Hakkinen         Chassis 07

David Coulthard       Chassis 06

T-car  (David)   Chassis 04

The Team McLaren Mercedes drivers David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen will start Sunday's Mobil 1 French Grand Prix from the second row of the grid. David's time of 1:13.186 puts him third and Mika's 1:13.268 qualified him fourth.

DAVID COULTHARD
'I'm reasonably happy with starting the race from the second row as I have won from this position before. Bridgestone has brought out a new tyre this weekend, which performs really well. My third run was going to be very quick, but there was a little bit of gravel on the track at turn 13 so I had to brake early and lost time. As a result before my final run I knew it was possible to go faster. However I wasn't as quick, but we can definitely take encouragement because we could have performed even better. I'm looking forward to the race as generally we have been capable of more in the races than in qualifying.'

MIKA HAKKINEN
'Its encouraging to be a lot closer to the front row than we were last weekend. Unfortunately I lost a couple of tenths in the mid-sector during my fastest run. Now we will work hard before tomorrow's race where the temperature and the track conditions will be essential. If we can be consistent throughout the race I'm confident of a positive outcome.'

RON DENNIS
'Today our engineers and drivers did a great job at optimising the cars. However missing pole by a relatively small margin is disappointing, but it should not detract from our ability to win the race as this circuit does provide some opportunities for overtaking. If the trend from previous races this year continues then our competitiveness tomorrow should be even better than in qualifying.'

NORBERT HAUG
'Just two and three tenths of a second behind pole is reasonable. We have a good basis for the race.'

-McLaren