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Saturday, March 3
Hakkinen to start third
Associated Press
MELBOURNE, Australia -- Last year, Mika Hakkinen started the Australian Grand Prix from the pole position but watched from the pits after breaking down as Michael Schumacher streaked to victory.
The year before, it was a similar story: The Finn also starting from top spot on the grid before the spoils went to Eddie Irvine, also in a Ferrari.
|  | | McLaren's David Coultard pulls on his balaclava during qualifying in Melbourne, Australia. |
Now McLaren driver Hakkinen is hoping his rivals suffer a similar fate after having to settle for third place behind the Ferraris of Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello in qualifying Saturday for the opening race of the 2001 season Sunday.
Schumacher, despite a spectacular crash during practice Friday, took the pole in 1 minute, 26.892 seconds.
He was three-tenths of a second ahead of Barrichello and 0.569 seconds in front of Hakkinen, who had been trying for his fourth straight pole at Melbourne after having won in 1998 in the "arranged" finish in which McLaren teammate David Coulthard moved over to let him win.
Coulthard was sixth fastest Saturday in 1:28.010.
Hakkinen, the two-time world champion who was deposed by Schumacher for the world drivers' crown last year, admitted being frustrated with troubles that slowed his silver McLaren racer around the Albert Park street circuit. But he tried to remain upbeat, pointing out that what happens on race day is what counts the most.
"To be honest, I'm not too concerned sitting where we are," Hakkinen said after battling with balance problems in his McLaren car during Saturday's qualifying.
"I know from experience, the last couple of years I've been on pole here, in quite big margins and you all know what happened in the race. I'm looking now optimistically to tomorrow's race and to finish it -- first."
At last year's Australian race, the McLarens of Hakkinen and Coulthard were clearly the fastest cars in the lead-up, and the pair were leading on race day before their engines failed.
The season turned out to be full of similar frustrations as the Schumacher-led Ferrari team took both the drivers' and constructors' titles. It was the first time in three seasons the British-based McLaren team had failed to win a title.
They arrived in Melbourne looking for revenge, but have been troubled by reliability problems in testing. It was a similar story Saturday.
"I didn't get the best out of the car today," said Hakkinen, claiming he had balance problems with his racer after putting new tires on during the session.
"It could have been better. I was not able to complete a good lap, I was always having little problems on some sector and always lost a little time. (But) I'm confident we can get a very consistent car for the race, and a good car."
Hakkinen's messy qualifying session also included going off the track on to the infield grass on his second run, and he also had runs interrupted when the session was red-flagged.
Team boss Ron Dennis said the qualifying session was one of missed chances.
"The potential in the car and the engine was there, but we didn't have the opportunity to extract it properly," he said. "So far the reliability has been very good, and if it continues through Sunday I feel we will get a good result." Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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