Friday Practice PM & Aggregate Times (Hungarian Grand Prix)
©
Terms & Conditions

Friday August 14, 1998

Summary


Coulthard head Hakkinen on day one.

Coulthard at Friday Press Conference David Coulthard swapped places with his team-mate Mika Hakkinen during this afternoon's dry session to head the McLaren double at the end of the first day's practice for the Marlboro Hungarian Grand Prix, the Scot the first driver to break 1m 20 secs, but still more than five seconds off Michael Schumacher's pole time with the Ferrari last year.

"Although we lapped quicker than last year's pole in Hockenheim, this track is a lot different and I do not expect we will get close here. Normally the second day the track is a lot cleaner and there is more grip, so I expect we will be quicker tomorrow if it remains dry and it doesn't get a lot hotter," he explained. Hakkinen was ahead half way around his last flying lap, but traffic prevented the Finn from improving his time.

Schumacher holds third place.

Schumacher Back to Garage during AM PracticeAs the time improved dramatically on the dry track this afternoon, Michael Schumacher's performance for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team improved accordingly, the German keeping his third place on the time sheets and still only half a second behind the leading McLaren pair.

"This morning showed the Goodyear rain tyres are very competitive in heavy rain. Things seemed a little bit more difficult as the rain eased off. This afternoon showed that we are in much better shape than in Hockenheim. The gap to the front runners is not too big. However, we need to see who was using new or old tyres at what point in the session, to have a clearer picture of where we stand... We are closer to the McLarens than we were in Hockenheim, but we still have a lot of work to do on the set-up," explained Schumacher.

Jean Todt stated that, "Today’s practice was different to usual because of the rain in the first hour, so we worked on both wet and dry settings. We have not completed our programme for dry conditions. The car shows good potential and there is scope for improvement."

Eddie Irvine kept his fifth place, only three tenth's off the pace of his team-mate, but found his car very hard to drive on the bumps, particularly under braking. Sometimes the bumps are so bad that it makes it hard to see the next corner," he complained. "At the corner after the bumpy downhill section I had to turn in where I thought the corner was as I could not see properly, the car was bouncing so much. We have to work hard now to find a solution. The tyres are okay and the balance of the car is quite good. The track was in worse condition than usual for a Friday afternoon as the rain meant there was no rubber put down from the morning session."

Villeneuve quick for Williams.

Despite an off course excursion early in the session, Jacques Villeneuve set the fourth fastest time of the session only a few hundredth's of a second off Schumacher's pace. He was confident of setting a good time during qualifying tomorrow after setting the fastest time overall in the second sector of the circuit. Heinz-Harald Frentzen ran 10 laps more than his team-mate but was unable to better ninth fastest time, the German again unhappy with his car's handling despite some impressive times in testing at Jerez last week.

Hill - more to come.

Although Damon Hill set the sixth fastest time of the session he said later that the time did not reflect the potential of his Jordan-Mugen Honda. "We are still a long way from a good balance," he said. Ralf Schumacher complained of no grip and understeer, the German taking another trip across the grass during the session in which he was eighth fastest. "Things should improve when there is more rubber on the track tomorrow," he said.

In Brief...

Jean Alesi was back in 13th place complaining of a lack of brake temperature and grip from his Sauber. Herbert was working on an oversteer problem and also trouble with his car's downshift which he though was due to the lack of an automatic "blip" between changes from the software. The Prost team didn't complete their programme after Trulli spun off into a gravel trap leaving Panis alone to carry out the development work. Barrichello complained that he could not find the source of a bad oversteer with his Stewart. Benetton worked on the race set-up, Wurz complaining of understeer thought to be caused by a shock absorber problem. Fisichella said he preferred the new longer wheelbase on the Benetton cars.

Timing


POS DRIVER                NATION    TEAM                        TIME                   
  1 David Coulthard       GB        McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13     1:19.989    178.764 kph
  2 Mika Hakkinen         FIN       McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13     1:20.186    + 0.197    
  3 Michael Schumacher    GER       Ferrari F300                1:20.439    + 0.450    
  4 Jacques Villeneuve    CAN       Williams-Mecachrome FW20    1:20.441    + 0.452    
  5 Eddie Irvine          GB        Ferrari F300                1:20.778    + 0.789    
  6 Damon Hill            GB        Jordan-Mugen-Honda 198      1:20.779    + 0.790    
  7 Giancarlo Fisichella  ITA       Benetton-Mecachrome B198    1:21.110    + 1.121    
  8 Ralf Schumacher       GER       Jordan-Mugen-Honda 198      1:21.198    + 1.209    
  9 Heinz-Harald Frentzen GER       Williams-Mecachrome FW20    1:21.218    + 1.229    
 10 Rubens Barrichello    BRA       Stewart-Ford SF2            1:21.414    + 1.425    
 11 Johnny Herbert        GB        Sauber-Petronas C17         1:21.571    + 1.582    
 12 Jos Verstappen        NED       Stewart-Ford SF2            1:21.903    + 1.914    
 13 Jean Alesi            FRA       Sauber-Petronas C17         1:21.990    + 2.001    
 14 Mika Salo             FIN       Arrows A19                  1:22.145    + 2.156    
 15 Alexander Wurz        AUT       Benetton-Mecachrome B198    1:22.297    + 2.308    
 16 Olivier Panis         FRA       Prost-Peugeot AP01          1:22.442    + 2.453    
 17 Sinji Nakano          JAP       Minardi-Ford M198           1:22.940    + 2.951    
 18 Toranosuke Takagi     JAP       Tyrrell-Ford 026            1:23.261    + 3.272    
 19 Pedro Diniz           BRA       Arrows A19                  1:23.450    + 3.461    
 20 Esteban Tuero         ARG       Minardi-Ford M198           1:23.671    + 3.682    
 21 Ricardo Rosset        BRA       Tyrrell-Ford 026            1:25.611    + 5.622    
 22 Jarno Trulli          ITA       Prost-Peugeot AP01          1:25.700    + 5.711    
                                                                                       
    Friday Practice 107%                                        1:25.588    + 5.599    
                                                                                       
                                                                  

FIA Links



Previous  |  News Index  |  Next   ]