Mika's comment at the arrival to Austria: "The A1 Ring is one of the fastest circuits on the calendar and consists of a few long straights and some tight corners, which makes it a real challenge, and there are quite a few good overtaking opportunities. Having had a short break from testing last week I'm feeling in fantastic shape for this weekend".

The qualifying session: When the session started the two first cars on the track was Barrichello and Coulthard, and David took the pole position from Barrichello immediately. Schumacher tried to beat Coulthard's time soon after but didn't succeed, Coulthard too tried to improve his own time and did succeed. When Mika Häkkinen came on the track for the first time, he only qualified fifth... Barrichello came out six minutes after this and won the pole position from Coulthard, but David improved again with -0,293 better than Barrichello a little later. Häkkinen finally took the pole position with -0,228 sec. 15 minutes after the session's start with his second try. Schumi had some problems fixed (with the car?!) and went for a third try 19 minutes after the session's start, but he lost the fast lap time when he drove too fast in one corner and simply spund around on the track. He made one last try but qualified only third, Barrichello didn't succeed either. Coulthard also gave it one last try but had to stop because of problems too. Later he admitted that he wasn't as good as his car today, though. Mika's third and last try 38 minutes after start succeeded and he improved his own pole position with -0,187. So David will start from grid two, Schumi from grid three and Barrichello from grid four.

Mika's comment after the qualifying session: "I'm really happy to be back on pole position. I managed to get the maximum out of the car and really enjoyed myself. Even though we lost valuable track time in yesterday's practice we managed to find an optimum set up and I was able to go flat out. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's race and we are in good shape".

The race: The incredible thing happened during the exciting seconds after the start: Zonta hit Michael Schumacher and Schumi was forced to retire {{{and there was much joy}}} Mika Salo was suddenly third because of that. Trulli drove off the track exactly the same place where both Schumi and Häkkinen went off during the free practice and the qualifying session. Häkkinen had a 13 seconds lead in lap 26, and at this point a few penalties were given for the messy beginning: To Zonta (probably for fucking with Ferrari), and to Ralf Schumacher and Diniz for reckless driving, I assume, LOL! Zonta was again involved in a little "car kissing" later on with Mazzacane. Häkkinen's pit stop went well, though a bit long because of the extra fuel. Ralf Schumacher finally spund off the track and had to retire in lap 63 - he also showed his middle finger to the (crane?) lift guy who almost hit Ralf while lifting his car off the track. Mika Häkkinen won the race without any problems 12,53 seconds before Coulthard, and 30,79 seconds before Barrichello! Today was indeed a glorious day...

Mika's comment after the race: "I'm very happy to claim my 16th victory here in Austria. More importantly it's a great result for the whole team with today's one-two victory giving us the lead in the Constructors' battle. We are definitely on track and I'm back to where I want to be. At the start I had the advantage that I was on pole, which meant that I could take a nice and more importantly a clean line into the first corner. Now we have seven races to go and clearly everything is open".

Last year:Mika became a GREAT third after THE accident in the first lap when his own Team Mate, Coulthard, "accidently" hit him, which put Häkkinen as number 22 at the end of lap one. Ten laps later he was half way through already as nr.11^th, and his beautiful third place proved to everybody what he's really made of!