Coulthard set to step up a gear

Tucked away in a Styrian mountain fastness, Austria's A1 Ring circuit has, since its readmission to the elite club of Formula One venues four years ago, been rebuilt in the aptly Teutonic grey and silver of McLaren.

Defence of this tiny realm has been entrusted to a garrison fronted by Mika Hakkinen. Twice a victor, in 1998 and last year, Hakkinen has established himself as the senior officer here.

It was here that Hakkinen, rested after a team-ordered two week break, relaunched himself into last year's title fight, beginning a sequence of wins and podium finishes that took him to the brink of glory until Michael Schumacher breached his walls at Monza and went on to crush his resistance.

This year, though, Hakkinen has had no holiday, no respite. There has been no point. Bruised by unsuccessful skirmishes over the first four races of this season, Hakkinen's threat was effectively extinguished in Barcelona when his clutch exploded on the last lap, robbing him of victory and, it seems, any chance of recovery.

Worse still, the Finn is suffering with flu and admitted that it was an issue in yesterday's free practice sessions.

This year, with the twin enemies of Ferrari and Williams at the gate, the McLaren stand will be made not by Hakkinen but by the junior officer, David Coulthard.

Since 1997 the Scot has finished each race in second place, giving him a total of 24 points at the circuit, an average equalled only by his team-mate, and has also lined up behind his teammate on the grid in two races.

Yesterday, though, Coulthard sought to move into the vanguard. He claimed the fastest time of the day in free practice, just ahead of Hakkinen and four tenths clear of Schumacher.

A good start, but Coulthard insisted there was more to come from the car. "We haven't got the maximum yet as I'm not 100 per cent happy with the balance," he said. "This track requires a lot of front-end grip on the tyres, which is what we have to work on."

Schumacher, too, spent the day working on improving the balance of his Ferrari on a track which, because of its high speed straights, slow corners and smooth surface poses major problems with grip. He came away without a quick fix yesterday, but then solving the riddles here has never been Schumacher's strong suit. The German has only ever scored five points here, one in 1997 and a third place in 1998 gifted to him by Eddie Irvine.

Yesterday also saw Schumacher struggle with niggling brake problems, an ominous sign at a track which, as the fourth fastest on the calendar, puts a premium on good brake balance.

While Ferrari's hopes of a successful first-day attack on McLaren failed to materialise, Jordan's siege engines failed to show for most of the day. Heinz-Harald Frentzen was sidelined with a hydraulic problem with the steering on his EJ11. He managed to join the fight in the afternoon and put in some decent runs to finish seventh.

Jarno Trulli too had a difficult day battling with the circuit's lack of grip as he ran in fully-fuelled race trim to finish 13th.

"Basically, there's no grip here," he said. "This morning it was very dirty and it's a onestop race. Lots of people were running a lot of fuel, as I was today. All this makes life difficult. We're just trying hard but you can make mistakes. We don't test here, so if you push really hard the circuit can play tricks on you."

So far so good for Coulthard. He has repelled the initial assault and his chances of keeping a McLaren flag flying look positive. However, while the battle may have been won, the war is far from over. Eddie Irvine finished 12th yesterday, and can be happy he has his team's support. Jaguar boss Niki Lauda says he has no problem with Irvine's playboy image, because "he can't take the girls in his Formula One car and when he drives he does the perfect job".