Coulthard will not give up the chase

13 April 2012

Silver linings are in short supply after the latest blow to David Coulthard's diminishing hopes of the world title.

The best that can be said is that even though Mika Hakkinen won yesterday's British Grand Prix, it is now mathematically impossible for him to regain the championship.There-fore he must now help his team-m ate'schallenge. But in 11 races this season Hakkinen has not cost Coulthard a single point, so any benefit may be negligible.

How typical that on a day w hen for once the rain held off, the race still had cold water poured all over it. Presumably Jarno Trulli has never seen the signpost for Silverstone village bearing the legend: "Please drive carefully."

For Coulthard's already paltry chances of overhauling Michael Schumacher's championship lead were damaged further when Trulli refused to accept the Scot was faster off the grid, and attempted to reach the first corner at Copse on the inside. The Jordan ended up in the kitty litter and Coulthard's unwanted extra-curricular travels relegated him to 19th.

Coulthard hobbled on until lap three when he was forced to give into rear suspension damage, leaving Hakkinen - previously unable to map a route out of a paper bag this season - to take his first chequered flag since Spa last August. The worst of it was McLaren had designed their whole race strate gy around Coulthard and the car looked in superb shape.

The idea was that Hakkinen, with a light fuel load, would zip ahead of Schumacher off the grid, then hold him up. Hence Coulthard, in third with a heavy fuel load, could challenge Schumacher at the optimum moment, or wait until the Ferrari pitted, before being waved through by Hakkinen. Instead Coulthard's instant demise permitted Hakkinen to sprint off over the horizon from the word go.

"Had we been able to run onet wo then I would have won my home grand prix," confirmed Coulthard. "Mika would have pulled over, no question. It would have been a great scene - him paying me back (for the same favour in the past) in front of my home fans. He would still have got all the credit and my title hopes would have been boosted. But that all went out of the window.

"I have to accept things are not going my way. Michael is edging closer to the title and it's going further away from me. But I absolutely refuse to accept defeat until he's got it in the bag."

Hakkinen was understandably jubilant, admitting he had feared victory would never come again. Yet it was a result to match the air of anti-climax which cloaked Silverstone all weekend. Curiously when Hakkinen waved at the crow ds on his warm-down lap, it looked as if it was not the Finn's hand at all but rather some mechanical device attached to the front of his cockpit, flapping gently in the breeze.

The only laughs during the whole afternoon were to be had from the sight of Damon Hill and his midlife crisis hairdo. Thank goodness for the presence of our greatly admired new Minister for Sport, Richard Caborn. When Schumacher did a couple of early exhibition laps in a 1951 Ferrari, can we be certain the Minister twigged the race was not yet under way, or that this was not the latest competition Ferrari?

Perhaps some helpful aide explained that Hakkinen's triumph meant the crowd was not only denied a Coulthard win but also a piece of motor-racing history. Schumacher may now equal Alain Prost's record of 51 career victories on home turf two weeks hence at Hockenheim. He could also break that record and wrap up his fourth w orld title in Hungary next month.

Schumacher is 37 points ahead with six races remaining. For Coulthard, the winning post is too near.

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Coulthard will not give up the chase

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