Hakkinen blasts ahead

From the sublime to the faintly soporific. After the rollercoaster ride that was Hockenheim two weeks ago, the F1 circus swapped high-wire thrills for low-level promenading at the Hungaroring yesterday.

As bores go it wasn't even crashing. But while most of the crowd slipped into silent contemplation of the Budapest skyline, for Mika Hakkinen it was possibly the sweetest and most thrilling of victories.

Less than a month ago the defending world champion was being written off as a victim of championship burnout, lacking the motivation to mount any kind of challenge to claim a third consecutive title. Then came Austria and an emphatic win.

The Finn followed that with second in that spectacular tilt around the Hockenheimring, and yesterday the McLaren number one catapulted himself into the lead of the drivers' championship in a race defined by his pace and power.

Hakkinen had struggled all weekend to find the balance necessary to make his McLaren quick here, but between a hard-won third place in qualifying on Saturday and flagfall yesterday afternoon he seemed to undergo some kind of revelation, and as soon as the lights went out at the start Hakkinen was in charging form.

It was to be the decisive moment of the race. As second-placed teammate David Coulthard got away poorly, and pole-winner Michael Schumacher focused too hard, as he later admitted, on making a clean getaway, Hakkinen was between them, powering his way into the first turn and cutting in past Schumacher on the inside.

The lead was his and would remain his, even through the pit stops, right to the chequered flag. Even the expected Schumacher fightback failed to materialise as Hakkinen simply upped the pace, setting fastest lap after fastest lap and widening the gap.

All Schumacher was left with was David Coulthard to fend off. The Scot, who had suffered badly in his first stint with tyre pressure problems, fought his way back after his stops and pressured the Ferrari number one right to the finish. Schumacher, though, held off the challenge to take a second place he admitted he was not disappointed in.

"I just wasn't fast enough to win today," said Schumacher, who now relinquishes his championship lead for the first time this season. "I lost out at the start, but when you are at the pace that Mika had throughout I think even if he hadn't overtaken me then he would have done so at some point. Therefore I'm not too unhappy to be second. I had a tight battle with David as well, but we managed to time our pit stops right and got out in front."

For Hakkinen, though, it was a victory to savour. Earned in front of some 20,000 Finns, who flock to this race each year, Hakkinen was understandably ecstatic with the 10 points that now put him two points ahead of Schumacher and six points clear of Coulthard. "I think I said at Hockenheim that you can only make a start like I did there maybe once a year, but it seems that it can happen twice," he said. "I made another great start today and was able to pass David and Michael at the first corner. It was very close passing Michael, but that's what racing should be and we both came round in one piece."

With the podium places taken by the main championship challengers, the remaining points places were shared between Rubens Barrichello, who endured a lonely, unchallenged and unchallenging race to fourth, Ralf Schumacher and Jordan's Heinz Harald Frentzen, who claimed a much needed point for the team.

It was a doubly good day for Jordan with Jarno Trulli bringing home the second Jordan in seventh, only the team's fourth twin finish of the year.

Eddie Jordan admitted he was pleased with day's efforts. "We should be happy with today's race," he said. "After the bad luck we've experienced it's really good to see both cars finish. "It is a shame both cars weren't able to finish in the points, but it was an extremely tough race for everyone and the drivers did a commendable job."

While Jordan were left to celebrate the nugget of one hard-won point, Hakkinen has been blessed with an embarrassment of riches in recent weeks and will seek to consolidate his lead at Spa in two weeks.

Yesterday, as he climbed from his broiling cockpit of his McLaren in parc ferme and accepted the plaudits of his team, the defending champion was doused with a bucket of cold water. In Belgium in two weeks he will seek to do the same thing to Schumacher's championship chances.