Saturday 11 July 1998
Saturday free practice
WEATHER CONDITIONS: overcast and windy

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Hakkinen and Coulthard continue to set pace
Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard continued to set the front running pace
with the McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13s during today's free practice session,
Hakkinen being delighted with the handling balance of his car while the
Scot was still a little uncertain of his machine's high speed stability.

Schumacher third for Ferrari
Michael Schumacher set third fastest time in his Ferrari F300, the German
driver working on chassis balance with a new rear wing and harder springs.
He used two sets of new tyres during the course of the session while Eddie
Irvine, who was seventh fastest, used one old set from Friday plus a new
set.

Jordans fourth and fifth
The Jordan Mugen-Hondas of Ralf Schumacher and Damon Hill wound up fourth
and fifth fastest. Ralf reported he was even happier than expected with the
performance of his car and predicted it would be better again on some of
the higher speed circuits to come in the calendar. Damon set his best time
in qualifying trim with a light fuel load but later slid off across a
gravel trap on worn tyres, but successfully regained the circuit.

Mixed time for Williams
Jacques Villeneuve seemed quite happy with the feel of his Williams FW20,
setting sixth fastest time, two places ahead of team-mate Heinz-Harald
Frentzen. "The car is going pretty well," said the World
Champion, "it feels confidently stable and we should be in a position
to fight this afternoon." Frentzen for his part was struggling
slightly for balance and the team believes it will be a finely judged call
whether to use the softer option Goodyear rubber bearing in mind that the
track surface might be too abrasive if the rubber is washed off by possible
heavy rain over the next 24-hours.

Alesi makes top ten for Sauber
Jean Alesi squeezed into the top ten with his Sauber-Petronas, reporting
that the car felt a little too throttle sensitive on the limit. Johnny
Herbert got through a lot of set-up work but heavy traffic prevented him
from improving on 12th place.

Benettons have troubled time
Giancarlo Fisichella and Alexander Wurz could not better tenth and 11th
places, both drivers unhappy with poor traction. Fisichella also lost a lot
of time after an off-track excursion caused a lot of undertray damage which
had to be repaired mid-session.

Briefly:
Pedro Diniz improved the traction on his Arrows, but Mika Salo had engine
problems and a flat rear tyre on his car_Rubens Barrichello's Stewart-Ford
also lacked traction while Jos Verstappen's sister car had a hydraulic
problem_both Tyrrell drivers are hoping Ford will allow them to use more
revs this afternoon as they are running onto the limiter in the tail wind.

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Saturday 11 July 1998
Saturday qualifying
WEATHER CONDITIONS: cool, overcast

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Hakkinen takes pole
Mika Hakkinen took his sixth pole position of the 1998 season to qualify
fastest for tomorrow's British Grand Prix. Mika reported that he was
pleased with the latest Bridgestone rubber and felt that he might have been
able to go a couple of tenths quicker had it not been for a slight problem
on the section between Club and Abbey. He didn't do his last run as he felt
it was better to save tyres for tomorrow, but team-mate David Coulthard was
a disappointed fourth, 1.0sec away from the Finn. Coulthard said he could
not put his finger on any particular problem but that the car did not feel
that far off the pace.

Schumacher makes front row
Michael Schumacher qualified his Ferrari F300 second fastest 0.449sec away
from, Hakkinen, the Ferrari driver very happy with its performance. He was
up at the first split on the final run but made a mistake at Abbey and
failed to sustain the improvement on his final lap. Eddie Irvine wound up a
satisfied fifth

Villeneuve third for Williams
Jacques Villeneuve qualified third on the grid in the Williams FW20,
matching team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen's previous 1998 best in Brazil.
Villeneuve reported that the latest aerodynamic modifications had
"settled the car down" and he gradually dialled out excessive
oversteer as the session progressed. Frentzen wound up fifth having made a
small mistake on the final sector of his best run

Hill seventh for Jordan
Damon Hill qualified seventh fastest in the Jordan 198, losing time in the
firsts sector of the lap after making a change to the way he tackled Copse
corner. Ralf Schumacher was fortunate to end up tenth after spinning and
stalling at the Abbey chicane, then taking over the spare car which was
already set up for Hill. He made some changes to the set-up which improved
its handling to his taste, but hung onto tenth place despite having to lose
his best qualifying time as the result of a yellow flag infringement during
the morning free practice session.

Saubers make top ten
Jean Alesi and Johnny Herbert qualified eighth and ninth for the
Sauber-Petronas team, Herbert feeling that the car was better in a race
set-up than qualifying trim. Alesi was simply satisfied to have produced
the team's best qualifying position of the year.

Briefly:
Both Benetton drivers were very unhappy, Fisichella and Wurz complaining of
poor grip even though the balance felt fine_Mika Salo had gearbox problems
which caused him to switch off mid-way round his fourth run in the
Arrows_.both Prost drivers reported acute lack of grip_Rubens Barrichello
said his Stewart-Ford would not respond to any chassis changes and Ford V10
engines occupied the last six places on the grid with Stewart, Tyrrell and
Minardi.

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