German GP Saturday McLaren notes

MOBIL 1 GERMAN GRAND PRIX 1998 - QUALIFYING Chassis Numbers: David Coulthard MP4-13 04 Mika Hakkinen MP4-13 06 T Car MP4-13 03

The West McLaren Mercedes team enjoyed a good qualifying session with Mika Hakkinen claiming his seventh pole position of the year. David Coulthard took second place for tomorrow's race with both drivers posting fastest times of 1:41.838 and 1:42.347 respectively.

MIKA HAKKINEN 'I am very happy to be starting from pole position for tomorrow's Grand Prix especially as it the home race for so many of our Partners. To put in a quicker pole position lap time than last year is very satisfying but the real contest will be tomorrow at 2.00pm'

DAVID COULTHARD 'I was aware that I was having a problem with the car towards the end of the session and when the engine failed I ran back to the garage to switch to the T- car. This had been set up for Mika so the team did a great job to change it over for me. The set up however, wasn't quite right for me and there were some brake imbalance so I wasn't able to put in a quick lap before the end of the session. A disappointing result for me really, but it is good to be back on the front row of the grid again.'

RON DENNIS 'A good performance by both drivers, admittedly a little closer than we expected, but we still occupy the front row which is the best place to be.'

NORBERT HAUG 'A full front row for the West McLaren Mercedes team at our home Grand Prix; this is for me a dream result. Mika was a little bit faster than last year's pole and both Mika and David gave a very good performance. Unfortunately David experienced an engine failure which meant that he had to make his final run in the T-car.