Hungarian Grand Prix

Position:	Driver:	Team: Time:
1.	M Hakkinen	Mclaren	1min 16.973
2.	D Coulthard	Mclaren	1min 17.131
3.	M Schumacher	Williams	1min 17.366
4.	D Hill	Jordan	1min 18.214
5.	E Irvine	Jordan	1min 18.325
6.	J.Villeneuve	Ferrari	1min 18.337
7.	HH Frentzen	Benetton	1min 19.029
8.	G Fisichella	Benetton	1min 19.050
9.	A Wurz	Ferrari	1min 19.063
10.	R Schumacher	Williams	1min 19.171
11.	J Alesi	Sauber	1min 19.210
12.	P.Diniz	Arrows	1min 19.706
13.	M Salo	Arrows	1min 19.712
14.	R Barrichello	Stewart	1min 19.712
15.	J.Herbert	Sauber	1min 19.876
16.	J Trulli	Prost	1min 20.042
17.	J. Verstappen	Stewart	1min 20.198
18.	T Takagi	Tyrrell	1min 20.354
19.	S.Nakano	Minardi	1min 20.635
20.	O.Panis	Prost	1min 20.663
21.	E Tuero	Minardi	1min 21.725
**DNQ	R Rosset	Tyrrell	1min 23.140

Today's single Qualifying Session for the Hungarian Grand Prix was held in sunny weather and an air temperature of 24C and the track 33C. As with many other Qualifying sessions it started off very slowly.
12 minutes into the session and Verstappen was the first car on track, he ran a single fast lap at 1m 21.828s then headed back to the pits. After few more minutes of quiet the Benetton of Fisichella takes to the track. His fast lap ended 50m short against the tyre wall!

At the 15 minute point the top ten were just one: (1) J.Verstappen.
20 minutes into the session and Coulthard is the first of the top cars on track. His first pole of 1m 17.919s lasts 4 minutes before Hakkinen takes it away with a 1m 17.794s. At the 30 minute point the top ten were: (1) Hakkinen, (2) Coulthard, (3) Irvine, (4) Frentzen, (5) Villeneuve, (6) Alesi, (7) Hill, (8) R.Schumacher, (9) Barrichello, (10) Salo.
4 minutes later M.Schumacher takes pole at 1m 17.505s. This is blown away by Coulthard 2 minutes later, when he runs a 1m 17.131s. 5 minutes later and Hakkinen is back in front at 1m 16.973s.

In the very last 10 minutes Coulthard spoils his fast lap by crossing the curb, Herbert spins over the grass, Hill takes 4th at 1m 18.214s, Villeneuve squeezes past Irvine into 5th at 1m 18.362s then Irvine retakes 5th at 1m 18.325s, Villeneuve makes one more improvement to 1m 18.337s but does not pass Irvine, M.Schumacher loses his final fast lap with a slide across the track, Frentzen retires on track and has to be towed back later.

The final top ten are: (1) Hakkinen, (2) Coulthard, (3) M.Schumacher, (4) Hill, (5) Irvine, (6) Villeneuve, (7) Frentzen, (8) Fisichella, (9) Wurz, (10) R.Schumacher. One second covers the first 3 places and two seconds the first 6. The best times in the track sectors were: Sector 1: Hakkinen (24.360s), Coulthard, M.Schumacher, Sector 2: Coulthard (30.789s), Hakkinen, M.Schumacher, Sector 3: Coulthard (21.733s), M.Schumacher, Hakkinen. Rosset will not be racing tomorrow as his time was 108.1% of the pole and he is thus disqualified under the 107% rule. This is McLaren's 11th pole, and 8th One-Two on the grid in the 12 grids so far this year. This is M.Schumacher's 6th 'best runner-up' (3rd) grid position this season.

In the interview afterwards Mika Hakkinen said he had made some changes for his last run but did have problems with the amount of gravel and dirt on the track. He said that the new Bridgestone front tyres they were using had performed very well. David Coulthard said that he had been able to run some strong laps, but often had problems with dirt on the track or touching the curbs. A complete lap without either of those could have given him pole, but instead he is second again. Michael Schumacher said that they had not been too confident of pole position, as this was a difficult track for the Ferrari. For his last lap they had made some changes and he took some extra risks, but it did not pay off (he slid under heavy braking and lost the line near the end of the lap).

No problems at the start for the two McLarens as they and Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari behind them got away from the grid in their qualifying order.
Damon Hill in the Jordan challenged Michael Schumacher for a moment but found that the other Ferrari of Eddie Irvine had shot past to claim fourth spot ahead of the Englishman.The order from the first lap was Mika Hakkinen, David Coulthard, Michael Schumacher, Eddie Irvine, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.

The top three, Hakkinen, Coulthard and Schumacher began to pull away from the rest with Hakkinen managing to open a just a little gap over 2nd and 3rd.The order remained the same until lap 14 when Eddie Irvine in the Ferrari who had been catching his team-mate ran into gearbox trouble and had to retire from the race.

On lap 20 the order was Hakkinen - 2.4secs - Coulthard - 0.2secs - Schumacher - 17secs - Hill - 5secs- Villeneuve - 5.5secs - Frentzen.
The first round of pitstops didn't see any change in order with David Coulthard just getting out in time to remain ahead of Michael Schumacher who wasn't helped by at that stage the yet to stop Jacques Villeneuve in the Williams immediately ahead of him.It was some laps before Villeneuve went into the pits which did Schumacher's attempt to stay with Coulthard no good at all.
Damon Hill in the Jordan was beginning to come under sustained pressure from the William's of Villeneuve with Michael Schumacher doing the same to David Coulthard. The German was all over the back of the McLaren using every inch of road and a little more at times.

Coulthard having to concentrate very hard to stay ahead locking up a front wheel or two as he left his braking to the last possible second. All this time Mika Hakkinen was just 3.5 seconds out in front.But then Michael Schumacher rather surprisingly peeled off into the pitlane for another stop. McLaren responded immediately by bringing David Coulthard into his pit only to find Schumacher's Ferrari passing the pitlane exit to take second place ahead of the McLaren.Mika Hakkinen came into the pits a lap or two later and again as with Coulthard as he left the pitlane he found the red Ferrari of Michael Schumacher getting into the first corner ahead of him. So on lap 48 the order was Schumacher, Hakkinen, Coulthard, Hill, Villeneuve, Frentzen.Schumacher seemed to have a new lease of life and on lap 50 found himself 10 seconds ahead of Mika Hakkinen. However two laps later Schumacher overdid it at the final corner of the lap and took an excurson over the grass but managed to control the car to rejoin the circuit. He remained in lead but of course lost vital time.But on his first clear lap after the incident he lapped the circuit over 3 seconds faster than the McLarens and did the same the following lap.While all this was going on David Coulthard passed his team-mate Hakkinen to take second place. Certainly at this stage not the type of race we were all expecting!

The order on lap 57 after the second round of pitstops was Schumacher - 17 secs - Coulthard - 7secs - Hakkinen, Villeneuve, Hill, Frentzen with leader Michael Schumacher 27 seconds ahead of third place man Mika Hakkinen.At this stage Schumacher was increasing his lead at such a rate that we had to assume that the McLaren Bridgestone tyres were not coping with the conditions at all well which was not to take anything away from Michael Schumacher who was drving an inspired race.At some 25 seconds or so ahead of Coulthard into the pits came the Ferrari. The pitcrew stood in anticipation as Schumacher pulled in amongst them. The 18 or so men did their job in 7.7 seconds and out came the German still in the lead.So with 15 laps remaining the order was Schumacher 5 seconds ahead of Coulthard, Hakkinen, Villeneuve, Hill, Frentzen.Mika Hakkinen obviously did have some sort of problem as he was then passed by a Sauber along the start/finish line. It would not be long before the William's of Villeneuve and the Jordan of Hill would begin to catch the Finnish driver.Michael Schumacher increased his lead steadily lap by lap and had more than doubled his lead over Coulthard by lap 70. Villeneuve caught and passed Hakkinen as did Damon Hill in the Jordan and Heinz-Harald Frentzen in Williams.

Michael Schumacher went on to take his Ferrari to the chequered flag and perhaps an unexpected maximum 10 Championship points even managing to lap Hakkinen's stricken McLaren on the last lap.David Coulthard finished in second spot for another 6 points and Jacques Villeneuve for the second consecutive race took the third podium position. Damon Hill kept ahead of Frentzen for his second 4th spot in a row.

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Position:	Driver:	Team:	Time:/Cause:
1	M Schumacher	Ferrari	1hr 20m 47.984s
2	D Coulthard	Mclaren	+9.433s
3	J.Villeneuve	Williams	+44.444s
4	D Hill	Jordan	+55.075s
5	H-H Frentzen	Williams	+56.510s
6	M Hakkinen	Mclaren	1 Lap
7	J Alesi	Sauber	1 Lap
8	G Fisichella	Benetton	1 Lap
9	R Schumacher	Jordan	1 Lap
10	J Herbert	Sauber	1 Lap
11	O Panis	Prost	3 Laps
12	P Diniz	Arrows	3 Laps
13	J.Verstrappen	Stewart	3 Laps
14	T Takagi	Minardi	3 Laps
15	S Nakano	Minardi	3 Laps
16	A Wurz	Benetton	8 Laps
DNF	E Tuero	Tyrrell	-
DNF	M Salo	Arrows	-
DNF	R Barrichello	Stewart	-
DNF	E Irvine	Ferrari	-
DNF	J Trulli	Prost	-
DNS	R Rosset	Tyrrell	-