Hakkinen looks for flying finish in Formula One

   Copyright c 1998 Nando Media
   Copyright c 1998 Reuters

LONDON (Oct 27, 1998 - 21:56 EST) - Little more than a year ago, Mika
Hakkinen was both the unluckiest driver in Formula One and perhaps the most
long-suffering.

Neither definition applies now to the quiet Finn who has, in truth, always
considered himself lucky to be alive and racing after a near-fatal crash in
Australia in 1995.

The McLaren driver still comes across as unhurried off the track, in marked
contrast to his speed on it, but has taken on the mantle of a winner.

Sunday's final Japanese Grand Prix should crown him as Finland's first
Formula One champion since his mentor and manager Keke Rosberg paved the
way in 1982.

Hakkinen leads title rival and former champion Michael Schumacher by four
points and will win his first crown outright if he beats the German. He
will also triumph on countback if Schumacher wins and he is second.

The situation is a welcome turnaround for a talented driver who once
thought fate was against him.

Hakkinen had to wait until October 26 last year for his first win after 95
races as an also-ran.

That victory in Jerez, the same race that crowned Canadian Jacques
Villeneuve as champion, opened the floodgates and Hakkinen has now won
seven races this season to become the most successful Finnish driver of all
time.

Rosberg won the title for Williams with just one victory.

It might be tempting to see the success in Spain as the defining moment in
Hakkinen's career.

But in truth, that came three years ago in Adelaide when his McLaren
punctured and hurtled into a barrier at 200 kph in Australian Grand Prix
practice.

Hakkinen was bleeding but alive and received emergency trackside surgery to
open his blocked windpipe.

"When I got to the accident the Australian doctors had already taken
Mika out of the car but he was not breathing properly and was very close to
death," said Formula One medical chief Syd Watkins this week.

The Finn was in hospital for three weeks, helped by then-girlfriend Erja,
now his wife, who nursed him to health.

"She comforted me and made it possible for me to get back my mental
strength," Hakkinen told a recent interviewer.

"That is why I want to win the world championship, not only for myself
but for all these people."

Some drivers might have called it a day, or never recovered their nerve,
but Hakkinen came back.

"He was a changed man after the accident and I believe he came back a
better driver," former world champion Damon Hill wrote in a newspaper
column at the weekend.

"He was less impetuous and became a little more well-rounded. Nobody
driving in Formula One today, after all, has a better understanding of the
value of life than Mika."

"He doesn't say a lot but, deep down, he has a great deal of inner
strength."

That is the key to the man who lives in Monaco but who shuns the
ostentatious high-life.

Hakkinen sometimes sounds shy and awkward after races and yet away from the
spotlight is relaxed and confident.

"For me, there are two different Mikas. There is the person and there
is the race driver and they are very different," his wife said
recently.

"At a race meeting, his personality does not come out, but he is
learning to relax more now he has started to win."

Hakkinen, a big crowd favourite in Japan, spent four seasons persevering at
McLaren when the team was struggling.

"To be a good winner, you have to learn to lose," he says,
speaking from years of practice.

The Finn has raced against Schumacher since he was a boy when they started
out in European karts in 1983. He was even shunted out of the 1990 Macau GP
by the German.

Hakkinen moved into Formula One with Lotus and was then approached by
McLaren and Ligier in late 1992.

McLaren wanted him as a test driver behind Ayrton Senna and American
Michael Andretti while Ligier offered him a seat.

"You have to believe in a team and stick to a team with potential.
Keke told me to come to McLaren because they had the record, the
history," the Finn said.

Hakkinen was the third man in a two-man team but his break came when the
struggling Andretti quit with three races to go.

The Finn took over, secured his place and built a reputation as one of the
fastest men in the sport.

But until Jerez, he never made the big step.

"There were times when I did not think it would happen," he
admitted this season.

"When finally I did win, I was surprised that perhaps I did not feel
quite so elated as I might have expected."

A world title on Sunday could see pent-up elation finally burst out from
behind the calm exterior, with Hakkinen the hero in the Far East where once
all looked bleak.

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