Hungarian GP Bridgestone Race Notes

Budapest, August/ 15/ 1999 1999 HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX - RACE McLaren 1-2 helps Hakkinen close the gap

Breaking a jinx on McLaren successes in Hungary which dates back to 1992, Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard scored a resounding 1-2 victory at the Hungaroring. But while Hakkinen took an immediate unopposed lead, Coulthard had to fight back from a disappointing start which left him in 5th place on the first lap. Patiently stalking Eddie Irvine, who had been in 2nd place since the start, the Scotsman's reward came with 14 laps to go when Irvine's Ferrari ran wide and the two men changed places. Hakkinen's victory has put him back within two points (56 to 54) of Irvine in the drivers' championship, while McLaren-Mercedes' maximum 16 points has put the Anglo-German team within four points (94 to 90) of Ferrari at the top of the constructors' table.

Yoshihiko Ichikawa, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager: "With the first three finishers in today's race running Bridgestone's Soft compound it is clear that the tyre performed well and they made the correct choice. However, we are very pleased with the results achieved today on the Extra Soft compound, which was chosen by three of the drivers in the first seven places. They were certainly helped by having weather which was much the same as yesterday, but they also showed that it was possible to get the best from the tyre at the beginning of the race when it was new. They also chose the best strategy, which helped to avoid the worst effects of the greater degradation to be expected on a softer compound."

Steve Hallam, West McLaren Mercedes Chief Engineers: "The work we did throughout the weekend, particularly on Saturday when it was hotter, has paid off with today's result. Under weather conditions that were similar to those of yesterday, we knew how hard we could afford to push the tyres while keeping a good balance in the handling of the cars. Even so, without knowing one hundred per cent what strategies the others would adopt, we had to keep pushing all the way. Everything seems to have worked well for us today, particularly when David passed Irvine."

Ross Brawn, Ferrari Team Technical Director: "We had a quite difficult weekend trying to set up Mika Salo's car for this race. Especially after what we achieved at Hockenheim, today's result is a disappointment for us and for him as we were not able to be stronger today. We understand that it must be very difficult for Mika to race on a such a technically complex circuit without having enough experience with the car. The things we learnt here during this weekend will certainly be useful in helping us to find a better way to work together with Mika for the Belgian Grand Prix, where we hope to find better solutions for his car. Although we also did have a small problem with the differential of Eddie's car during the race, it should not have prevented him from taking 2nd place. However, Eddie's very small mistake, while defending himself from such a strong attack, was enough to lose him his second position."

Bridgestone technicians will be present at the testing due to take place later this week at Silverstone in preparation for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps (August 29). In the event of rain, it is expected that McLaren will be working on the development of wet weather tyres for the future.

TEMPERATURES    AIR     TRACK   WEATHER 
Morning         19:-23: 24:-28: Sunny - dry     
Afternoon       27:-27: 36:-36: Sunny - dry