Coulthard warns against complacency

   Copyright c 1998 Nando Media
   Copyright c 1998 Reuters

HOCKENHEIM, Germany (Jul 31, 1998 - 11:34 EDT) - Championship leader Mika
Hakkinen headed practice times for Sunday's German Grand Prix but teammate
David Coulthard warned their McLaren outfit to take nothing for granted.

Hakkinen's quickest lap of one minute 43.949 seconds came with just minutes
of the final session remaining on Friday and left Coulthard trailing by
just 0.192 seconds.

But despite rivals Ferrari's Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine being left
in fifth and sixth place, Coulthard said a lack of reliability could still
wreck his team's hopes.

"This will not be the championship decider, but it could prove crucial
for the championship if we get a 1-2," said Coulthard.

"I'm reasonably satisfied with the job we have done today and
surprised a little bit about our advantage. But our concern on this circuit
is reliability. It really pushes the engine to its limit and that could
work against us."

McLaren are aware how fragile their cars are after mechanical problems
earlier this year. Hakkinen retired from the San Marino and Canadian grands
prix with gearbox problems and Coulthard suffered mechanical problems in
Monaco and Canada.

Hakkinen said: "We improved the car throughout the session and I am
pleased with the performance. Now we are concentrating on setting up the
car for tomorrow's qualifying session, but everything looks
promising."

Damon Hill caused the surprise of the day when he set the third quickest
time in his Jordan. The former world champion, who has not finished in the
points so far this year, was just three tenths of a second slower than
Hakkinen.

Jean Alesi was fourth quickest in the Sauber, after topping the times
briefly, while Schumacher, eight points adrift of Hakkinen in the
championship, was in fifth place after experimenting with a new
long-wheelbase version of his Ferrari.

The car had proved quicker in recent testing at Monza, but after beating
teammate Irvine by just three hundreths of a second, Schumacher may revert
to the standard version for the rest of the weekend.

The Williams duo of Jacques Villeneuve and Heinz-Harald Frentzen showed
improvement to end the day seventh and eighth.

The high-speed nature of the track, which means drivers run with very
little downforce, led to a number of spins and incidents.

The only accident which resulted in damage, though, was when Brazilian
Pedro Diniz in the Arrows spun backwards into the pit-lane guard rail.

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