Mika magic at Silverstone

MICHAEL Schumacher admitted coasting to second place behind a rejuvenated Mika Hakkinen in the British Formula One Grand Prix at Silverstone yesterday, and has already signalled he feels comfortably on target to claim his fourth world driver's championship.

"(When) certain things don't fit perfectly well together, you go about half a second slower per lap," he said afterwards. "And if you look at my fastest time compared to Mika, that's about the gap we had. Strategy and all this works out into his favour and obviously gives the amount we see.

"On the other side, after some stage of the race it was clear that I couldn't catch him up front so I drove a conservative race just to bring home the points. There's no particular need to protect anything because we simply weren't fast enough this weekend. Other weekends we were fast enough so I don't we are in a difficult situation in general.

"I need to look on the list to see how big that makes the gap now but obviously it works in my favour. On the other hand, there were 70 points still available and now it's 60 points. Now I have 37 points in my pocket with six races to go. It's nice to know but still, I would rather sit here and tell you it's over but it's not. We have to keep fighting. But on the other hand, despite it being maybe over or not over, I want to continue winning races. That's what I'm here for."Schumacher extended his championship lead over David Coulthard to 37 points after the McLaren-Mercedes driver made contact with Jordan driver Jarno Trulli at the first corner. In what both described as a racing incident, the altercation left the West-sponsored car with damaged right rear suspension, causing Coulthard's withdrawal and dashing his chances of winning his third consecutive British GP.

But the hero of the day was Hakkinen, who took advantage of a Shumacher mistake on lap four to claim the lead - a lead he would maintain to the end. Despite pitting twice compared with Schumacher's one-stop strategy, the former world champion posted consecutive fastest laps and a new lap record of 1:23.405 on lap 34 to win his first race in more than a year by more than 33 seconds.

"It feels really good," he said later. "After all the trouble that's been going on this year, it feels good to win it obviously, and particularly here at Silverstone because I drive for an English team and in front of an English crowd. We made a great show."Schumacher's Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello eventually got the better of Williams-BMW's Juan Pablo Montoya, who led the race at one point, with Sauber drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld putting their 2000-season Ferrari engines to good use by again finishing inside the points with fifth and sixth respectively.

Williams-BMW driver Ralf Schumacher was the other notable non-finisher alongside Coulthard and Trulli, the German's Mercedes expiring at just over half race distance after running as high as fourth.

* Australian Mark Webber finished fourth in the Formula 3000 race at Silverstone on Saturday, ending his hopes of repeating last year's memorable victory in the British Grand Prix support event.

With four rounds to go the 24-year-old Queanbeyan hot-shoe remains in a tight, three-way tussle for the championship lead. Briton Justin Wilson leads with 43 points, followed by Webber on 39 and Czech Tomas Enge on 34.

The Silverstone race was won by Frenchman Sebastian Bourdais, who started alongside Webber on the second row before claiming his first F3000 win, defeating Wilson by less than a second after 30 laps.

Webber, the only three-times winner this year, described his race only as "average" after being overtaken three laps from the end by Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia and beating pole-sitter Enge to fourth when the Czech's engine faltered exiting the last corner.

"I came to Silverstone with high hopes," said the Super Nova Lola driver afterwards, "because I love this track and have traditionally done well here. In the end, however, we just didn't quite have the car to run at the front."* Australian James Courtney encountered bad luck in the British Formula Three race run at Silverstone prior to the British GP on the eve of his first Formula One test.

The 21-year-old qualified 10th but made contact with Gianmaria Bruni on lap one and damaged his front wing. He called into the pits where the nose was changed and resumed at the tail of the field. From there he drove aggressively, using all of the track to be one of the quickest cars on track, and soon began to scythe his way through the Scholarship cars and the tailenders.

British F3 championship leader Takuma Sato romped to victory in the non-championship GP support race, the Carlin Motorsport driver making the most of his pole to win by 11 seconds to teammate Anthony Davidson.

F1 RACE RESULTS
1 Mika Hakkinen (McLaren-Mercedes) 1:25.33.770
2 M Schumacher (Ferrari) +33.646
3 R Barrichello (Ferrari) +59.280
4 J P Montoya (Williams-BMW) +68.772
5 K Raikkonen (Sauber-Ferrari) +1 lap
6 N Heidfeld (Sauber-Ferrari) +1 lap
7 H-H Frentzen (Jordan-Honda) +1 lap
8 J Villeneuve (BAR-Honda) +1 lap
9 E Irvine (Jaguar-Cosworth) + 1 lap
10 J Verstappen (Arrows-Asiatech) + 2 lapsF1 DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP
1 M Schumacher (GER) 84
2 Coulthard (SCO) 47
3 Barrichello (BRA) 34
4 Schumacher (GER) 31
5 Hakkinen (FIN) 19
6 J-P Montoya (COL) 15
7 Heidfeld (UK) 10
=8 Trulli (ITA) 9
=8 Raikkonen (FIN) 9
10 Villeneuve (CAN) 7F1 MANUFACTURERS' CHAMPIONSHIP
1 Scuderia Ferrari-Marlboro 118
2 West McLaren Mercedes 66
3 BMW Williams F1 46
4 Red Bull Sauber Petronas 19
5 Benson & Hedges Jordan Honda 15
6 Lucky Strike Reynard BAR Honda 12
7 Jaguar Racing 5
8 Prost Acer 3
=9 Mild Seven Benetton Renault Sport 1
=9 Orange Arrows Asiatech 1
Next round: German Grand Prix, Hockenheim, July 29