Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard made it another one - two for the McLaren team in Barcelona. Michael Schumacher’s dominance throughout the weekend did not pay off as the Ferrari driver ended the race in fifth position after loosing track position to David Coulthard with a slow puncture. Hakkinen took the chequered flag after a series of poor Ferrari pit stops and Ferrari’s refuelling man Nigel Stepney being injured during a stop and needing hospital treatment.

Mika Hakkinen has now renewed the battle for the championship and trails Schumacher by 14 points. David Coulthard who finished second after a harrowing week suffering mental and physical strain after surviving a plane crash, secures third spot in the drivers championship 16 points behind Schumacher. The constructors championship is much closer after McLaren’s dual win, Ferrari now only hold a seven point lead over McLaren.

The Benson and Hedges Jordan Mugen-Honda team now stands clear in fourth position in the World Championship after winning one point in today’s Spanish Grand Prix with a sixth place finish for Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Trulli finished 12th dropping down the field from 8th after stalling during his pit stop. A two-car finish for B & H Jordan puts to rest the reliability problems faced by the team in the early races of the season.

“It is very encouraging to have finished the race after the difficult start to the season we have had this year, said Frentzen. Winning one point is an important bonus, especially on this circuit which is not one where either myself or Jordan have performed well at in the past. Now we can look forward to going to Nurburgring having sorted out our reliability problems. We have a good track record there which hopefully we can continue.”

Jarno Trulli who gained a point for Prost last year had less luck this time round and lost track position due to stalling his engine during the first stop. Trulli commented, “Unfortunately on my first pit stop the engine stalled and although my mechanics managed to restart it, I lost many places and was not able to regain them. It is disappointing since the two-stop strategy was good and the car ran without any problems. The important thing, however, is that the car finished the race without any reliability issues.”

Eddie Jordan Chief Executive of Jordan Grand Prix added, “I believe we made a major breakthrough in our reliability and understanding what was causing problems with the car. Hopefully that is now behind us; I must admit it was a relief to see both cars finish, even if it was disappointing not to have them both in the points. But then in nine years, Jordan has only ever scored three points at this circuit, so we increased that tally today! Now we can concentrate on finding more speed in the car for the forthcoming races.”

Jordan Grand Prix


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