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| Formula 1 news, results and statistics when you need it | Has David Coulthard
      ruined  9
      - 15 July News    | |||
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      15-Jul:   
      
      At
      the post Race press conference for the British GP, Mika Hakkinen
      indicated that he was relieved to have won at Silverstone as it was one of
      the few races that he didn't win in the past and said "It's probably
      difficult to understand 100 per cent how important it is for me, because
      first of all, I always wanted to win in Canada and I did that not last
      year but the year before. I always wanted to win that because it's a very
      special Grand Prix, as is the Silverstone Grand Prix and it happened
      today, so it's something incredible, something that's missing from my
      black book. I won quite a few times in Formula Three, but never in Formula
      One." 
      
      Michael
      Schumacher  
      
      indicated that their car was difficult to drive and Mika
      was too fast and said "My car wasn't really the way I would have
      liked to have it and particularly into Copse I had a lot of problems. I
      got sideways a couple of times on the entry and when it happened with
      Mika, that's what happened, I lost it at the entry. I managed to keep it
      on the track which was the only thing I was worried about at this moment
      and then Mika was beside and there was nothing I could do against that. It
      was always important to get out of Becketts very well and I was doing that
      to keep him behind me but indeed, he was flying, he was much much faster,
      so it would have been very difficult anyway to win this Grand Prix, but
      I've normally done so well this year so far and Mika did an outstanding
      race. He was performing well and on our side, something was not perfectly
      right and that's the way you can't win and you have to accept this." Rubens Barrichello indicated that he was not happy with the balance of the car since Friday and therefore satisfied with finishing in third and said "I didn't have the balance I would have liked since Friday, to be honest, so I was having to drive it quite carefully although I was trying to be quite fast. I was lucky that my car was good exiting Becketts otherwise I wouldn't have been able to hold anybody but it was good to see Montoya coming into the pits and I had the chance to come in and still be in front of them. After that, the cars on new tyres were a little bit better so I was OK to drive away. It's a couple of races that I finished third, once in Magny-Cours starting eighth and today starting sixth. Although I had different problems. Magny-Cours I was unhappy with the car and yesterday I just had traffic. Two podiums, I have to be not fantastically happy but I'm OK." 15-Jul: What the teams and drivers said following the Race at Silverstone ... Report 15-Jul: British GP - Race: Mika Hakkinen wins his first race of the season ahead of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. Juan Pablo Montoya, Kimi Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld make the top 6 ... Timed Results ... Full Report ... Notes 15-Jul: British GP - Warm-up: David Coulthard sets the fastest time ahead of Jarno Trulli and Mika Hakkinen. Heinz Harald Frentzen, Michael Schumacher and Olivier Panis make the top 6 ... Timed Results ... Full Report ... Notes 
      
      14-Jul:  At
      the post Qualifying press conference for the British GP, Michael
      Schumacher described the session as difficult but interesting and said
      "Difficult and interesting because obviously there was only half an
      hour to go when most people decided to leave the pits and trying to do
      four runs, trying to work the car, because we haven't any dry experience
      today for qualifying at all. So it was quite entertaining and then the
      monitors didn't work any more so we didn't get any lap times. We didn't
      know where we were fast or slow. It sometimes help you a little bit in
      which kind of areas to concentrate so it was quite exciting." 
      
      Mika Hakkinen
      
      indicated that he could have gone faster on his last run as we had to slow
      down on his final lap and said "We went out something like two
      minutes before the end and obviously there was like six, seven cars in
      front of me before the second-last corner so I had to slow down a lot and
      try to find the gap. And it's very difficult indeed because David's just
      behind me I couldn't leave it for absolutely the last second for me -
      that's what I was thinking about because otherwise he might not get a
      timed lap and there's no reason to start racing between team mates as to
      which one goes first on the timed lap. So it was a little bit of a
      compromise so when I did my timed lap properly I was behind a Benetton in
      the last two corners and there is a possibility that maybe cost me a tenth
      or two. But then again we have to look at the times and study sector to
      sector so I'm very happy about the performance of the car, the speed." 
      
      David Coulthard 
      
 has indicated the he was not too disappointed
      with 3rd as he never managed to get the right balance from his car and
      said "I'm not too disappointed with qualifying, I don't feel I've got
      the balance on the car so far this weekend wet or dry so to be quite close
      considering the balance of the car I had on the track then it's optimistic
      for our performance in the race." 14-Jul: What the teams and drivers said following Qualifying at Silverstone ... Report 14-Jul: British GP - Qualifying: Michael Schumacher grabs his first ever pole at Silverstone ahead of a revived Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. Jarno Trulli, Heinz Harald Frentzen and Rubens Barrichello make the top 6 ... Timed Results ... Full Report ... Notes 14-Jul: British GP - 2nd Saturday Practice: No change in the top 6 from the first session due to the wet conditions. Michael Schumacher remains fastest ahead of Heinz Harald Frentzen and Mika Hakkinen. David Coulthard, Rubens Barrichello and Nick Heidfeld make the top 6 ... Timed Results ... Full Report ... Notes 14-Jul: British GP - 1st Saturday Practice: Michael Schumacher sets the fastest time of the session ahead of Heinz Harald Frentzen and Mika Hakkinen. David Coulthard, Rubens Barrichello and Nick Heidfeld make the top 6 ... Timed Results ... Full Report ... Notes 13-Jul: At the Friday press conference for the British GP, Kimi Raikkonen has denied that he is in talks with Ferrari and described them as just rumours and said "That's just rumours, I haven't spoken with Ferrari at all. It would be very nice to drive for them but we will see what happens in the future." 
      
      Mika Hakkinen  has made it clear that he is not planning to
      retire next year but he is discussing his options with Ron Dennis. His
      answer to the question: "Will you retire next year ?" was "Well,
      let's say it this way. The first part of my answer is no and the second
      part is the team has an option on me for next year and we are going
      through discussions with Ron and looking for good solutions for the future." 
      
      Eddie Irvine 
      
 has indicated that while his neck needs some time
      to fully recover, it is not an issue for him and said "It's not an
      issue, I missed the last test because I went out and it was hurting
      straight away and the two back-to-back races gave it a bit of a hard time.
      It was a perfect opportunity to rest it so we did because we didn't really
      have the bits and pieces that we wanted to test at Monza. It was better
      that I just rested up. It won't be an issue here, it'll hurt but as you
      drive around it sort of eases up. I need a three week break and Bernie's
      organized that for August." 
      
      Frank Williams 
      
 indicated that he isn't frightened of the rain
      despite the belief that Michelin do not perform well in the wet and said
      "That may be the case but our tyres have performed very well in the
      wet. I have no opinion whether we'll be good here in the wet or not, we
      haven't tested here in the rain, so if it happens to rain tomorrow or
      Sunday we should know then but I'm not frightened of the rain." 
      
      Ron Dennis 
      
 has indicated that McLaren have decided to stop
      supporting the three karting championships in the UK and will use those
      funds in another initiative that will be announced soon and said "The
      only thing we have definitely decided not to do is support the three
      karting championships in the UK, we've done it for several years - six or
      seven I think - and so we've put those funds into a different initiative
      which is very different and will be announced in the next two or three
      weeks. So we're out of karting with the exception of supporting Niko
      Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, both of whom came out of tremendous success
      last year into a less successful season this year so they're getting the
      hang of what it's like to be less competitive." 
      
      Tom Walkinshaw 
      
 has denied that Arrows will be making an
      announcement on a Cosworth engine supply deal this weekend but is hoping
      to make an announcement in a couple of weeks at most and said "No,
      we're not making an announcement today but I read it in Autosport!. I
      think we're working towards a conclusion, yes. Within a matter of days I
      would say and I hope by the next Grand Prix we'll be able to make an
      announcement." 13-Jul: What the teams and drivers said following Friday practice at Silverstone ... Report 13-Jul: British GP - 2nd Friday Practice: Mika Hakkinen sets the fastest time of the session ahead of David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello. Michael Schumacher, Heinz Harald Frentzen and Nick Heidfeld make the top 6 ... Timed Results ... Full Report ... Notes 13-Jul: British GP - 1st Friday Practice: Michael Schumacher fastest in the session ahead of Rubens Barrichello and Mika Hakkinen. David Coulthard, Heinz Harald Frentzen and Eddie Irvine make the top 6 ... Timed Results ... Full Report ... Notes 
      
      12-Jul: At the Thursday press
      conference for the British GP, Hiroshi Yasukawa has indicated that
      Formula 1 can handle an additional tyre manufacturer and said "I
      think a maximum of three. At the Austrian and French Grands Prix, an
      American company has been represented at the races. Of course, they came
      to see me and to say hello, and I said that they were very welcome." Eddie Jordan has indicated how relieved he was after finally scoring points at the French GP (the first time for Jordan in the points in 5 races) and said "It gave us some sort of relief, not a lot, but you know nobody likes not finishing, and everybody likes getting points. It's very difficult to get points now that Ferrari, McLaren and Williams... points are the name of the game. If you're going to be successful, you have to make sure that you're there all the time, and there are a number of races - I think the launch control thing in Austria - hurt us very badly, because, in Formula One, as in any major sport, there's a high element of psychology involved. Bobby Rahal has indicated that Jaguar have been improving steadily since Monaco and while there is still a long way to go he is happy to be mixing with Jordan and BAR and said "Since Monaco it's been encouraging. We continue to make progress but, as I said sometime right after Monaco, we don't want to make too much of that because we still have a long way to go. It's great racing now with Eddie's group and BAR being in the midst of that rather than being at the tail end of it, but that can change overnight. You can go back to the tail end awfully quickly, so we take it one day at a time, and work our hardest and we'll see what the results will be but in the meantime we just have to keep our heads down. Jenson Button  still believes that
      the new spec Renault engine is a significant improvement despite only
      qualifying in 16th an 17th in France and said "I think it was pretty
      much what we expected, but I think a lot of other people got quite excited
      about it and thought we would be inside the top ten which is impossible
      halfway through the season to make that big a jump. But it was a definite
      improvement. A lot of people might not have noticed it because we were
      still in 16th and 17th but the gap that we made up
      was quite a substantial amount. Here we will have the same engine for the
      race so maybe we can race a little bit better." David Coulthard  indicated that the
      team are only introducing some new electronics to their car at Silverstone
      but still believes that in race trim they are strong and have a chance of
      winning and said "There've been a few electronic changes that we've
      been working on, trying to get the most out of the traction control and
      but I'm not aware of anything mechanical or any other changes for this
      race.  Rubens Barrichello has hit back at Eddie Irvine (who recently described Barrichello as a moaner) by telling Eddie to shut up and said "Luckily they only told me at the end of my holiday. Actually I read some newspapers today and it's difficult. He should just shut up and concentrate on his job and remember that when I was sitting in that car and it was white instead of green I had a lot more points than him so it's just silly to be going on." 12-Jul:  In response to the rumours
      surrounding McLaren's driver line-up for 2002 and particularly Mika
      Hakkinen, McLaren have issue a statement clarifying the situation. Ron
      Dennis said "This year, in common with every other year, we have
      certain carefully chosen criteria we apply in selecting our driver line-up
      for next year. We are very comfortable with the options open to us and
      will make announcements in conjunction with the drivers when appropriate.
      Our decisions not only involve the selection of race drivers, but also the
      very important third driver slot that contributes so much to our testing
      and development programme. It is also our intention to enhance our medium
      term options by reinforcing our young driver line-up." Michael Schumacher has indicated that he will not write McLaren
      off just yet as they have suffered from reliability issues that they will
      get around soon and said "I don't think my rivals are weak. Maybe it
      is about technical things. If you look at reliability we have been pretty
      outstanding and consistent. This is our main factor this year. But I have
      never written McLaren off and I won't do it now. When you analyse their
      performance more deeply, you see they are still very strong except in
      qualifying maybe. I still see them to have a chance, especially if it all
      comes together against us. So we will take care to try to not let that
      happen."  12-Jul: The
      Silverstone circuit has hosted the British GP 34 times with the first
      in 1950. In the late 50's and early 60's the British GP alternated between
      Silverstone and Aintree while from the mid 60's until 1986 it alternated
      between Silverstone and Brands Hatch. Silverstone has hosted all the
      British GP's since then.  In qualifying, Jim Clark, Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill
      have each started 3 times from Pole. Of the current drivers, Mika
      Hakkinen won Pole twice while Jacques Villeneuve and Rubens
      Barrichello are the only other current drivers who won Pole at Silverstone
      with one each. Interestingly, Michael Schumacher who has been on Pole 39
      times so far in his career has never won Pole at Silverstone and even the
      great Ayrton Senna who has a massive 65 Poles only managed to win Pole
      once! 12-Jul: "The beginning of the end!" is the title of the 22nd issue from the Diagnosis and Prognosis Series for the 2001 season. In this issue, the Heretic looks at the upcoming British Grand Prix - Issue 22 11-Jul: "Has Jacques Villeneuve lost his edge ?" Topic of the week - Have Your Say  10-Jul: David Coulthard has indicated
      that they are not doing a job good enough to deserve winning the title and
      said "You either do a job that is deserving of the title or you don't
      and at the moment we are not and we know we need to improve." 9-Jul: "Can Coulthard make it 3 in a row ?" The British Grand Prix Preview is now available ... Race Preview British Formula 1 Grand Prix Schedule: 
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