Coulthard cautions against complacency

   Copyright c 1998 Nando Media
   Copyright c 1998 Reuters

SILVERSTONE, England (Jul 10, 1998 - 13:15 EDT) - David Coulthard warned
against world championship complacency on Friday even though his McLaren
team outclassed their rivals in practice for Sunday's British Grand Prix.

Coulthard relegated McLaren partner and world title leader Mika Hakkinen to
second place in the timings -- while their arch rival Michael Schumacher
was only seventh in his Ferrari.

In spite of his team's one-two on the eve of qualifying, Coulthard
cautioned: "It doesn't guarantee anything.

"It's a similar situation to what we had last year. Michael was
leading the championship by 17 points at this point last season, but
Jacques (Villeneuve) still won.

"People have very short memories and the championship is following its
normal form and ultimately it will settle down and I am hopeful that we
will triumph in the end."

Coulthard's joy at being fastest was tarnished slightly after he was fined
$8,000 for speeding in the pit-lane. Hakkinen, now only six points ahead of
the fast-closing Schumacher in the title chase, was fined $3,250 for a
similar offence.

McLaren's nearest challengers were Williams duo Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Villeneuve.

Frentzen's best lap was less than half a second slower than Hakkinen's and
was proof of the work the team had done during testing at Silverstone last
week.

With Eddie Irvine fifth, despite an early morning spin after just three
laps of opening practice, Schumacher said he was unconcerned about the
performance of the Ferrari's.

He had used just one set of tyres and was confident that he would be able
to improve his position in qualifying.

"I am not worried about my lap time as I only used one set of
tyres," he said. "We should be able to improve tomorrow, but I
expect we will have a slightly more difficult job that we did in
France."

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