Irvine lets his car do the talking

The comments may have been ill-advised and the opinions a little wayward, but yesterday in Montreal Eddie Irvine put his money where his mouth had previously wandered to record the fastest time in practice ahead of tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix.

Earlier this week the Ferrari driver had lit the fuse on a potential firestorm of controversy with his incendiary opinions on other drivers. Rating McLaren's David Coulthard a failure and Mika Hakkinen merely adequate, the Ulsterman said he would easily out-drive the Finn if given the opportunity of a berth at McLaren next season.

Inured by prolonged exposure to the Ferrari number two's frequent bouts of chutzpah, most drivers merely shrugged and got on with the business of preparing for the challenges of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

But yesterday, Irvine appeared in no mood to be taken lightly, pushing hard throughout the session and eclipsing team-mate Michael Schumacher for the second race in succession. But while Irvine was cutting a swathe through the drivers he had verbally dismissed a few days earlier, one came back to challenge him - David Coulthard.

The Scot has maintained a dignified silence since Irvine's outburst, but seemed keen yesterday to make his point on the track. In the end he couldn't eclipse Irvine, finishing the day a tenth of a second behind the Ferrari, but the point will not have been lost on Irvine.

After the session both drivers remained coy about the placings and times with Irvine confining himself to comments about his own performance. "I only made one mistake and I was pleased with myself up until then," he said.

"I'm pretty happy with the car. My last lap should have been the best but I used too much kerb at one point and I had no problems with brakes, because on this circuit you always have to check the wear rate very carefully."

Coulthard was even less expansive, confining himself to a terse, "No real problems. I'll be concentrating on a good qualifying session."

While Irvine and Coulthard were indulging in their private spat, the rest of the field struggled with the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve's mix of high-speed straights, slow turns and need for massive amounts of down-force.

On Thursday, Mika Hakkinen had predicted a high attrition rate throughout the weekend and yesterday the world champion's prediction began to come true, with the Finn himself among the first casualties, spinning off after only six laps and finishing 13th.

With his morning session curtailed, Hakkinen was yesterday unable to come to terms with the requirements of the temporary circuit in the afternoon and finished seventh. "I didn't get enough laps in and finding the limits of the car has been difficult," he said. "I have been struggling with the set-up of the car and I wasn't able to get the balance right under braking. Fortunately there's time to still get everything right."

Despite the optimism, the Finn's record in Montreal is unenviable, his best finish is fifth and last year he failed to take the chequered flag as Ferrari began a fight-back which saw them take three straight wins to claw their way back into the 1998 championship.

Those statistics will undoubtedly give championship leader Michael Schumacher hope for tomorrow's race. "I'm quite happy with the work we did today," he said.

"The car's handling was pretty good right from the start of practice. "Furthermore, we managed to make further improvements to the set-up. I expect we'll be very competitive in qualifying and the race as this circuit suits our car." Schumacher finished third in qualifying yesterday.

According to Ferrari sporting director Jean Todt, both Ferraris will also be running with a new engine in today's qualifying session.

An interim development of the engine which failed to materialise in Barcelona, the new 048B specification will give Ferrari a power boost for the all-important session, although according to Irvine neither car is likely to race with the unit due to reliability concerns.

Jordan have again experienced the preparatory difficulties that have dogged them since Monaco, with Heinz Harald Frentzen eighth and Damon Hill again failing to make a mark, ending the day 14th. Hill blamed his poor day's work on the plethora of yellow flags the sessions were conducted under as cars regularly spun off, but also admitted that set-up problems had impaired the teams' performance. "I was happy with the balance of the car on old tyres," he said, "but changing to new tyres seemed to upset the balance. Overall though, I feel quite satisfied as I could have made a good lap time if it had not been for all the yellow flags."

Team owner Eddie Jordan, meanwhile, continued to deny rumours that Eddie Irvine would join the team. "No we haven't talked about it," he said. "We've talked about everything else, boats, cars, but never about the one thing we both won't talk about - money. It might be a good idea though," he continued.

"I could take him and sell him straight back to Ferrari. The money from the last time isn't coming in any more and I'm missing it!"