Spanish Grand Prix

Position:	Driver:	Team:	Time:
1.	M Hakkinen	Mclaren	1m 20.262s
2.	D Coulthard	Mclaren	1m 20.996s
3.	M Schumacher	Ferrari	1m 21.785s
4.	G Fisichella	Benetton	1m 21.894s
5.	A Wurz	Benetton	1m 21.965s
6.	E Irvine	Ferrari	1m 22.350s
7.	J.Herbert	Sauber	1m 22.794s
8.	D Hill	Jordan	1m 22.835s
9.	R Barrichello	Stewart	1m 22.860s
10.	J.Villeneuve	Williams	1m 22.885s
11.	R Schumacher	Jordan	1m 22.927s
12.	O.Panis	Prost	1m 22.963s
13.	HH Frentzen	Williams	1m 23.197s
14.	J Alesi	Sauber	1m 23.327s
15.	P Diniz	Arrows	1m 23.704s
16.	J Trulli	Prost	1m 23.748s
17.	M Salo	Arrows	1m 23.887s
18.	J Magnussen	Stewart	1m 24.112s
19.	E Tuero	Tyrrell	1m 24.265s
20.	S Nakano	Minardi	1m 24.538s
21.	T Takagi	Minardi	1m 24.722s
Outside 107% .	R Rosset	Tyrrell	1m 25.946s

As for the last three Grand Prix's, the grid for the Spanish Grand Prix features the two McLarens and the Ferrari of M.Schumacher in the first three places, after today's single Qualifying Session. Completing the top six are the two Benettons of Fisichella and Wurz, followed by the second Ferrari of Irvine.

The Qualifying session weather was bright and sunny with a track temperature of 31 degrees C. First on track were Magnussen and Rosset, followed a few minutes later by championship leader Hakkinen. The McLaren's first fast lap of 1m 21.123s was 4s faster than Magnussen and threw down the gauntlet for the other teams. Four minutes later Coulthard set his first lap at 1m 21.960s to take second place on the grid.

At the 15 minute point, the top ten were: (1) Hakkinen, (2) Coulthard, (3) Fisichella, (4) M.Schumacher, (5) Barrichello, (6) Herbert, (7) Frentzen, (8) Takagi, (9) Trulli, (10) Magnussen. The gap from Coulthard (2) to Fisichella (3) was nearly 1 second.

At the 30 minute point Takagi slid off the track - over the gravel and back on. Hakkinen had pushed his time down to 1m 20.664s and Coulthard to 1m 20.996s. M.Schumacher had not been out again. Villeneuve had set a time of 1m 23.700s, but was way out of the top 10. The top ten were now: (1) Hakkinen, (2) Coulthard, (3) Wurz, (4) Fisichella, (5) Hill, (6) R.Schumacher, (7) Barrichello, (8) Herbert, (9) M.Schumacher, (10) Panis. The gap from Coulthard (2) to Wurz (3) was 1.3s.

By the 45 minute point the Benetton Boys had been battling each other for third place. Fischella took it from Wurz by 0.022s and then Wurz took it back by 0.3s. M.Schumacher had run another fast lap (1m 22.579s) initially taking third but quickly dropping back to 5th. Villeneuve was finally just in the top ten with a 1m 22.885s and Hakkinen had pushed the pole to 1m 20.262s. The top ten were: (1) Hakkinen, (2) Coulthard, (3) Wurz, (4) Fisichella, (5) M.Schumacher, (6) Irvine, (7) Herbert, (8) Hill, (9) Barrichello, (10) Villeneuve. The gap from Coulthard (2) to Wurz (3) was back to 1 second.

In the final 15 minutes neither Hakkinen nor Coulthard improved, M.Schumacher did and his 1m 21.785s moved him into third, past the battling Benettons. Of them Fisichella had the last laugh when his 1m 21.894s moved him in front of Wurz by 0.07s. Wurz did not improve on his final lap. Neither did Villeneuve - he ended his lap in the gravel and nosed into the tyre wall. He will start from 10th on the grid, his joint worst position this year (10th in Brazil also).

For the first time this year a driver will not start tomorrow due to the 107% rule. The Tyrrell of Rosset is at 107.08% of the pole time - a gap of 5.68s.

For the third of this year's five races, the McLarens took the first two podium places in today's Spanish Grand Prix. As before, Hakkinen finished in front of his teammate Coulthard. Third on the podium (for the fourth race in a row) was a Ferrari, this time driven by ex-World Champion Michael Schumacher. The rest of the top six were Wurz, Barrichello and Villeneuve.

At the start of the Warm-Up lap the Arrows of DIniz stalled and had to be pushed into the pits. Eventually he started one lap behind the rest of the field. At the off it was Hakkinen who blasted into the first corner followed by Coulthard. Fisichella passed M.Schumacher before the corner and entered with Irvine at his side. By the second corner Irvine was into third place followed by Fisichella and M.Schumacher. Wurz was sixth having just survived an Irvine type overtaking move from Barrichello. There was much braking and dodging in those first few hundred meters. It was a surprise that everyone passed through intact. Frentzen suffered a spin and went into the pits at the end of the lap. He rejoined at the back of the field, just in front of Diniz.

Immediately the McLarens started to pull away. By lap 5 it was 6s from Hakkinen to Coulthard and 4s back to Irvine. By lap 20 Hakkinen had lapped the back three cars and was 12s in front of Coulthard, 6s behind him was Irvine.

On lap 21 the Arrows team demonstrated the art of synchronised failures. Both cars pulled onto the grass at the end of the pit lane within seconds of each other. At this point the top six were Hakkinen ->11.500s-> Coulthard ->7.000s-> Irvine ->3.500s-> Fisichella ->2.100s-> M.Schumacher ->5.200s-> Wurz

On lap 28 Irvine was on the inside line passing Fisichella into the corner, he braked, slid and both cars ended up in the gravel.

At the first round of pit stops M.Schumacher picked up a 10s pit-lane-speeding penalty - he jumped into the pits on lap 40 and watched his third place be taken by Wurz. 6 laps later Wurz pitted and Schumacher was back in third, some 21s behind Coulthard. He later managed to pit and return to the track, still 4s in front of Wurz.

By the end of the race Hakkinen was 9s in front of Coulthard and M.Schumacher was 47s behind him. Hakkinen had lapped everyone up to 5th place and had led all the laps except for the two he pitted on. A great drive from Barrichello brought Stewart their first points of the season and a consistant drive by Villeneuve resulted in 1 point from his 10th place on the grid.

This result puts Hakkinen 7 points in front of Coulthard in the championship and 12 points in front of M.Schumacher. The McLaren team are now 30 points in front of Ferrari and a massive 51 points in front of Williams.

In the post-race interview Hakkinen said that a win like this must look easy but it was not, you always had to concentrate very hard, especially when overtaking the back markers. He was asked if he had run very hard in his first 10 laps to open the 10 second lead. He said he had, but had always been aware of the potential of damaging the tyres by running too hard in those early laps. He said he could have gone faster, but wanted to finish. He also said he had been very happy with the fast pit stops, which had seemed slightly slower than Coulthards as he was being careful.

Coulthard said he had felt off the pace in the early part of the race due to problems with his tyres. He had tried very hard, but had never really been up with Hakkinen.

Michael Schumacher said he was happy with the result, especially after all his problems - he had lost several places at the start and then picked up a 10 second penalty in the pits. When asked about the overtaking possibilites, he said that having run behind Fisichella early in the race he had found that overtaking was pretty impossible.

All three were looking forward to the unique challenges of Monaco in two weeks time.

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