Mika's comment at the arrivel to San Marino: "I must admit I haven't had an ideal start to the season. Hopefully my luck will change this weekend. I like the circuit and hope to qualify well, which we have done so far this year. I have never won the San Marino Grand Prix - my highest finish was third in 1994 so it will be good to do well this weekend".

The qualifying session yesterday ended the same way as the two previous ones: Häkkinen took the pole position from under Schumacher's very nose, today literally. Schumi beat Häkkinens time appr. one minute before the qualifying session was over, but Häkkinen was already on the track warming up, so he could continue. He drove most of the lap without any luck and when he made a mistake in the end of the lap, even the Finnish commentators had lost faith and declared Schumi the winner. But Häkkinen is not the fastest Formula One driver [and the defending World Champion] for nothing. Somehow, between the last two turns and the finishing line, he managed to find half a second despite of another mistake in the last turn, where he almost lost control of the car, and he beat Schumi's time by far. Schumi was shaking his head in disbelief, he probably couldn't believe his own eyes, but noone else couldn't either. It was surrealistic... fantastic... indescribable.....

Mika's comment after the qualifying session: "I must admit that I was on the absolute limit during my final run. I really pushed in the last couple of corners because I felt I might be slightly down after the first two sectors. We have made a lot of progress with the car since yesterday's practice and I'm happy with the balance".

The race: Once again the Formula One can be described with just ONE word: "Disappointing". But unlike the Grand Prix in both Brazil and Australia Häkkinen made it to goal this time, despite several problems during the race, including a temporarely engine stop. The start was excellent and Häkkinen took the lead right away and after just a few laps he started to increase the distance to Schumacher behind him, slowly but steadily. The first pit stop went surprisingly smooth with less than 8 seconds compared to Schumis almost 10, and the following laps didn't change much from the first ones. But when Häkkinen went to his second pit stop, Schumi continued and made the Finnish commentators very nervous. Perhaps Ferrari had a one pit stop strategy? But no, Schumi came in four laps later, but their strategy by waiting those four laps proved to be crucial for the result of today's GP. Schumi had time to increase his lead with several more seconds with his lighter car, at the same time when Häkkinen first had problems with the bottom of his car  after an impact with some object during his first pit stop, and then with the car's engine that suddenly stopped during the race after the second lap. Schumi did not only have a surprisingly fast second pit stop (appr. 6 seconds) but he also made it back out on the track in front of Häkkinen, and despite of Häkkinens faster laps in the end of the race, he didn't manage to pass Schumi before the race was over. Schumi passed the finishing line 1,66 seconds before Häkkinen. *sigh* Coulthard came in third so today must be considered a very good day for Team McLaren, nevertheless. Imola is one of the few tracks in F1, which runs anti-clockwise.

Mika's comment after the race: "I'm happy to score points, but I should have won the race. Just before my first pit stop I hit a piece of metal on the circuit which damaged the front floor of my car and made it hard to drive for the rest of the race. Also just before my second pit stop my engine cut out on the main straight and I lost time to Schumacher which meant he was able to take the lead following his second pit stop."

Last year Mika also took the pole position here at San Mariono BUT despite of a GREAT start and even a better race where he managed to run away from everybody, leading with quite a bit, he made a bad turn and crashed. "I made a good start and was leading the rest of the field when I made a mistake. It's as simple as that. It was a driver error and meant that I went out of the race on lap 17 without any points" was Mika's honest response afterwards. He changed into the wrong gear and spund out. Darn.