Hakkinen left with nothing but agony

The wonder was Hakkinen didn't follow suit out of sheer rage as his vehicle rolled to an agonising halt, five corners short of the chequered flag.

Achievements don't come much less thrilling than being the first driver since Nigel Mansell at the 1991 Canadian grand prix to surrender victory on the very last lap. Some in Hakkinen's place might have hurled themselves under the wheel's of Schumacher's Ferrari in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the German grabbing all 10 points. Hakkinen merely accepted Coulthard's offer of a lift, and waved elegantly.

"It was difficult to believe it was happening," he sighed. "I wish I had a punchbag so I could take out my frustration. There was nothing I could do. During the race I was thinking my luck had changed. I was enjoying myself in a big way and the car was really going well. Sometimes things just don't go the way you want them to. But I have to believe I can still win the championship until there is no mathematical chance of it."

Opinions were divided whether it was better for Coulthard that Schumacher triumphed instead of his team-mate. On the one hand, it left the Scot 24 points ahead of his team-mate with a third of the season gone, clearly making him McLaren's title contender. Then again, if Hakkinen had won, Coulthard would have been only four championship points behind Schumacher, instead of eight.

Either way, this was definitely a race for McLaren to file away in the cabinet marked 'Not Our Day'. What was it Coulthard said so presciently on Friday about the reintroduction of driver aids, theoretically making a bad start impossible? Ah yes: "The computer is supposed to do all the work for you, but if that fails on the grid, you're in trouble."

Yep, that was about the height of it. As the parade lap set off, Coulthard duly went through the high-tech start sequence only for his car to die beneath him. Obliged to start from the back of the grid, he was then mangled at the first corner by Enrique Bernoldi's Arrows and forced to pit.

He spent the rest of the race on a joyless charge to salvage a point, eventually managing two thanks to his team-mate's bizarre misfortune.

Unfortunately McLaren boss Ron Dennis didn't believe the initial fault could lie anywhere other than with the driver, and announced Coulthard's "brain fade" to anyone in the paddock who would listen.

"We have to take responsibility for our actions," Dennis lectured primly. "David's problem was that he didn't perform properly. He was a bit concerned about running into the back of Schumacher ahead of him on the grid and he didn't go through the launch sequence correctly." Coulthard wasn't having that.

"I did everything as I had in practice," he insisted. "I was beside myself with frustration. At the first corner I was so pissed off I wanted to throw the car into the gravel and go home. As for the start, the theory is the engine can't stall. Was it my mistake? No. Was it a systems mistake? Yes."

Like spectators at a tennis match, all heads turned back to Ron for his reply. Alas, the row was over before it began.

"Based on the initial analysis we felt David was responsible for stalling," he said. "Closer scrutiny confirmed a glitch in the software was at fault." Note the absence of any apology for slandering Coulthard's professional competence. Remember, we have to take responsibility for our actions. Unless we're called Ron Dennis.