Hakkinen not impressed by speed of Ferraris

   Copyright c 1998 Nando Media
   Copyright c 1998 Agence France-Presse

SUZUKA, Japan (Oct 30, 1998 - 12:03 EST) - Mika Hakkinen dished out a
warning to Michael Schumacher despite seeing his rival scorch to the
fastest time in practice as the Japanese Grand Prix got underway in Suzuka
on Friday.

Hakkinen could only finish fifth fastest for McLaren, around 0.8sec down,
but insisted the team were concentrating on Sunday's race.

"It was a routine practice session today," said Hakkinen, who
leads Schumacher by four points and only needs finish second in the race to
be crowned champion.

"We were concentrating on the balance for the race. The car ran
reliably, it was strong and we completed a good number of laps. I am
pleased."

Team chief Ron Dennis said: "As always we are concentrating on our
race set-up which means lap times are immaterial at this stage."

Schumacher, delighted at gaining the early initiative, was also wary of the
first day times, realising Saturday's vital qualifying session will be
hotly contested.

"I am happy to be on provisional pole, but I do not think that today's
result shows the whole truth.

"Qualifying will be very close tomorrow. I believe we are competitive
and all the hard work in testing over the past few weeks seems to have paid
off."

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