Formula 1: British Grand Prix
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Coulthard leads Hakkinen
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[Fri Jul-10 15h00 CET]
At the end of the first of today's two 1 hour Free Practice sessions for
the British Grand Prix, it was Mika Hakkinen fastest at 1m 25.984s
(215.202kph / 11 Laps) in front of teammate David Coulthard (1m 26.076s -
15L).  Completing the top six were M.Schumacher (1m 26.884s - 10L),
Fisichella (1m 27.507s - 12L), Villeneuve (1m 27.809s - 16L) and Hill (1m
27.815s - 18L).

It was an overcast day at Silverstone, nearly as overcast as Eddie Irvine
was, when he ended his session with a spin into the gravel after just two
laps.  Coulthard and Frentzen also took trips into the gravel but did not
end their sessions.

Also looking overcast were Barrichello and DIniz, car troubles leaving them
as spectators for most of the session.  Diniz did manage 13th fastest (1m
29.375s) with his 5 working laps.  Barrichello, though, was back in 21st
fastest (1m 31.029s) after his 4 laps.  The only person slower was Irvine,
who did not even register a time.  Most drivers ran between 19 (Trulli) and
9 (Frentzen) laps.

This weekend Minardi and Jordan are trying some new aerodynamics, while
both Goodyear and Bridgestone have some new rubber compounds on offer.

After this first hour 1 second covered the first 3 places and 2 seconds
covered the first 7.

In the second part of the session Herbert, Diniz and Trulli all had car
problems.  Pans ended his session early when he spun off.

By the end of the second part of the session most drivers had covered
between 41 (Hill) and 18 (Irvine) laps.  The continuing problems of Diniz
had left him stuck on 6.

Coulthard (1m 25.640s - 216.067s - 36L) ended the session fastest, followed
by Hakkinen (1m 25.764s - 25L), Frentzen (1m 26.107s - 31L), Villeneuve (1m
26.114s - 38L), Irvine (1m 26.791s - 18L) and Fisichella (1m 26.840s -
32L).

On this very fast circuit the Ferrari's 'second row' position has been
taken by the ever improving Williams team.  The prancing horses are today
fighting the Benettons for the 'third row'.

1 second covered the first 4 places and 2 seconds covered the first 9.

Today's session was the fastest first session of the season.  The average
speed of 216.067kph beats the previous fastest of 207.199kph by Hakkinen in
Spain.


Session: 1st Free Practice
Track Times:

Pos  Driver          Team       Lap Time   Laps
 1  D.Coulthard     McLaren     1m 25.640s (36)
 2  M.Hakkinen      McLaren     1m 25.764s (25)
 3  H.Frentzen      Williams    1m 26.107s (31)
 4  J.Villeneuve    Williams    1m 26.114s (38)
 5  E.Irvine        Ferrari     1m 26.791s (18)
 6  G.Fisichella    Benetton    1m 26.840s (32)
 7  M.Schumacher    Ferrari     1m 26.884s (27)
 8  A.Wurz          Benetton    1m 27.121s (32)
 9  R.Schumacher    Jordan      1m 27.460s (30)
10  D.Hill          Jordan      1m 27.667s (41)
11  J.Herbert       Sauber      1m 27.978s (25)
12  J.Alesi         Sauber      1m 28.136s (27)
13  T.Takagi        Tyrrell     1m 28.258s (35)
14  R.Barrichello   Stewart     1m 28.339s (23)
15  J.Trulli        Prost       1m 28.685s (40)
16  J.Verstappen    Stewart     1m 28.983s (32)
17  O.Panis         Prost       1m 29.193s (22)
18  M.Salo          Arrows      1m 29.262s (32)
19  P.Diniz         Arrows      1m 29.375s ( 6)
20  R.Rosset        Tyrrell     1m 29.664s (35)
21  S.Nakano        Minardi     1m 30.090s (36)
22  E.Tuero         Minardi     1m 30.266s (30)
   ---- 107% ----               1m 31.634s

Average speed of D.Coulthard 216.067km/h

All information is unofficial
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