Mika Hakkinen admitted yesterday that he's worried about his Championship prospects, in the light of Eddie Irvine's current points lead. "I am worried about the situation but I just have to stay cool," said the Finn. "Eddie's points lead is enormous. At the start of the season I thought defending the title would be easy. What's happened is surprising but if the last two Grands Prix had gone to plan I would still be ahead."

However, Hakkinen said he remains optimistic. "I am hungry for the fight," he said. "It is a more challenging and exciting situation now. I will be driving to the maximum until the end of the season and hope the car will stay together. Negative things happen during a season but when you put all the things that have gone wrong together, like a tyre explosion, then it suddenly affects you psychologically.

"I am trying to ignore it. You just have to try and put these things out of your mind and ignore them, but it is not easy when everybody keeps reminding you about them. When I lost my rear brakes in Canada earlier this season I was doing 200mph and I just hoped that would be my last experience of something like that.

"But then it happens in Hockenheim at even faster speed. I thought the car was never going to stop, when you are going backwards at that speed it is incredible. All you can do is wait for the impact. I was lucky to come out of the accident without injury because the car was destroyed."