McLaren-Mercedes bosses unconcerned

(30-Oct-98) - Ron Dennis and Norbert Haug say they aren't worried about
McLaren-Mercedes' inferior performance during today's free-practice
sessions.

Mika Hakkinen finished the session fifth ahead of McLaren team-mate David
Coulthard, however, team boss Ron Dennis declared the times 'immaterial'.

"As always we are concentrating on our race set up which means lap
times are immaterial at this stage," said Dennis. "They purely
reflect difficulties with traffic and yellow flags."

Mercedes motorsport boss, Norbert Haug, echoed his colleague's sentiments:
"The result has little significance."

"Mika and David had to abandon their fast laps when Alesi and Irvine
had an off. In the end Mika was under way with his best split times when he
was held up by traffic in the last chicane."

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