Mika Mastery

Qualifying analysis, by Michele Lupini

There we were, pen poised to write to a waiting world about Ferrari's domination of qualifying in Monte Carlo.

The McLarens had struggled since Thursday morning. McLaren? Struggle? Try eleventh and fourteenth in the first session. Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard were among the midfielders, something the memory cannot recognise. Worse still, it was their nemeses so far this year, Eddie Irvine ahead of Michael Schumacher this time. Not only were Ferrari well ahead in the championship, but their dominance of that session set McLaren's men in search of their best.

Looking good in those early stages were a charged up Damon Hill, looking for success in a race his dad won five times but he hasn't yet, and Rubens Barrichello, in a region of the Formula One field he's becoming accustomed to. Alex Zanardi showed why he's become a streetrace legend across the pond in sixth.

By Thursday afternoon, Woking's finest had clawed their way back, although Mika was still a tenth-and-a-bit of a second behind Michael. Olivier Panis rocked the boat a little, the Prost man edging out Irvine, Giancarlo Fisichella's Benetton and Coulthard.

Saturday morning, after Monte Carlo's traditional Friday off, saw Ferrari appearing to control the situation, Michael ahead of Eddie, with Mika close to three quarters of a second off the lead Ferrari. Behind them came Barrichello, Frentzen and an attacking Jacques Villeneuve, confirming BAR's improving form.

So, on Saturday afternoon, the world focused on Monte Carlo, for what was to be the most riveting Formula One qualifying session we've seen for some time, without doubt this year.

Michael Schumacher soon established the status quo for the weekend so far, with a refreshing red hue at the front for once. Behind the leader board chopped and changed on a continual basis, as Barrichello, Jarno Trulli, Hakkinen, Irvine, Coulthard and Heinz Harald Frentzen, among others, each took a chance at the upper positions on the grid. Schumacher calmly kept on moving the goalposts though, keeping a little ahead, apparently with a little in hand.

Not far off the pace, the McLarens were clearly struggling, especially in the last sector, which started from just beyond the tunnel. Mika was anxious to find the errant few tenths – adjusting his car's power steering to suit some of the tighter sections and examining extensive data from the car on his previous laps. Coulthard too, was doing his best to find the last little bit that matters…

As the last minutes of the session approached and Marc Gene's second stricken Minardi was removed from the Swimming Pool complex, the big guns set out to end the session in what transpired to be cracking style. Mika's McLaren appeared far more composed than it did at any time on the weekend, as he entered the last sector, half a second quicker than Michael Schumacher had all weekend. Was it enough? Had McLaren sorted the car well enough to pip the Ferrari at the post?

Indeed they had. Although Mika was quite a bit slower than his arch rival in that last sector, he had built up enough credit in the first sectors to pull off what must be his hardest-earned pole in his career. Six hundredths of a second split the World Champion from his Ferrari challenger, in a rare come-from-behind pole from a combination used to dominating qualifying sessionsr.

Just to rub salt in the wounds of an expectant Ferrari, David Coulthard - who had suffered a dismal morning with minimal set-up laps in free practice, pulled just as good a lap as his teammate's out of the bag. He eclipsed Eddie Irvine for third to create a most promising silver-and-red first two rows of the grid.

Of the rest, Barrichello put the Stewart-Ford into fifth, from another man who's having a great 1999 - Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Jordan Mugen-Honda - and Prost's Jarno Trulli. Although he isn't the most comfortable driver at Monaco, Jacques Villeneuve ended eighth, from the Benettons of Fisichella and Wurz, then came an unknown quantity in Monte Carlo, Alex Zanardi, from Mika Salo in the second BAR, Herbert's Stewart and the Saubers of Alesi and Diniz. Ralf Schumacher ended an uncharacteristic sixteenth, from '97 winner Panis and Damon hill, who has some work to do if he wants to emulate his father. The regular Arrows/Minardi gaggle closed off the grid.

But tomorrow sees a different race. McLaren does not have an advantage in Monte Carlo, something that when they had it, never helped them against a craftier, more reliable Scuderia Ferrari so far in '99. But by the same token, to those critics who say Michael Schumacher has never really had the competition to be considered a truly great driver, how can they continue to justify Mika Hakkinen's growing stature as someone who is not real competition...

Roll on Sunday afternoon!