Dennis and Haug quietly confident

(31-Oct-98) - Ron Dennis declared himself 'comfortable' with the team's
performance after Mika Hakkinen qualified second to Michael Schumacher for
tomorrow's season finale.

"It is always nice to be on pole but we are very comfortable with our
grid position, particularly as our lap times show we are well ahead of the
opposition." Said Dennis.

The McLaren boss pointed out that a repeat of qualifying in the race would
be enough for Hakkinen to take the tile, the Finn only needing to finish
second: "This is probably the only race I have ever come to where
coming second is as important as coming first."

Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug credited his countryman for winning
pole but appeared happy with both McLaren-Mercedes ahead of the second
Ferrari of Eddie Irvine: "A strong performance by Michael Schumacher
but we are on target, with our cars on row one and two of the grid, ahead
of Eddie Irvine. With this we have a better basis for the race than we had
at the Nurburgring last month."

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