Eddie Jordan's team dinner at Budapest's best known Irish pub and restaurant on Thursday night increased the tightly knit squad's determination to stay racing at the front.
Damon Hill, second last year in the Arrows, coolly outdrove his young teammate, Ralf Schumacher, to post the sixth fastest lap yesterday. Hill clocked a time a mere thousandth of a second slower than near neighbour Eddie Irvine, while Ralf Schumacher was eighth fastest at the end of a day dominated, once again, by the McLarens.
Hill enjoys the circuit and his race around the slow-speed, twisty hillside track was the highlight of his season last year. "It's not popular with many of the drivers but I really like it," he said yesterday. "That turn one is very tricky - the road falls away as you're coming out of it and the car goes light. It's good fun and very satisfying to get right."
The Jordan team normally do not go well on high downforce circuits. The Hungaroring is only used once a year and many of the drivers found their cars sliding a lot - especially after morning rain. "The track is green all right," said Hill. "But the issue for me is how easily the car is upset over the bumps. We will be fine tuning it to improve the balance and if we manage that we can go a second quicker," he added.
Hill's time was 7/10 of a second off the McLarens and almost half a second quicker than his teammate.
Ralf Schumacher is the centre of speculation that he has a firm offer for next year from BAT for double the money Jordan will pay, and this is distracting the 23-yearold who is managed by his brother's manager, Willi Weber. "I had problems with understeer but we have sent the data back to the factory in Silverstone and for qualifying I think we can do better."
Eddie Irvine was fifth - two places behind his team leader but he found the day a real struggle. "The car was difficult to drive. It's going to be a tough race," he said.
With five races to go including tomorrow, Michael Schumacher has to win to narrow the 16-point gap to Hakkinen and keep his title hopes alive while Irvine needs a strong result, with Coulthard retiring, to close his 10-point deficit to the McLaren driver in their battle for third place in the World Championship.
Leading Practice Times
1. David Coulthard (Britain) McLaren, one minute 19.989 seconds (average speed 178.764km/h); 2. Mika Hakkinen (Finland) McLaren, 1:20.186; 3. Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari, 1:20.439; 4. Jacques Villeneuve (Canada) Williams, 1:20.441; 5. Eddie Irvine (Britain) Ferrari, 1:20.778; 6. Damon Hill (Britain) Jordan, 1:20.779; 7. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Benetton, 1:21.110; 8. Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Jordan, 1:21.198; 9. Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Germany) Williams,1:21.218; 10. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Stewart, 1:21.414; 11. Johnny Herbert (Britain) Sauber, 1:21.571; 12. Jos Verstappen (Netherlands) Stewart, 1:21.903; 13. Jean Alesi (France) Sauber, 1:21.990; 14. Mika Salo (Finland) Arrows, 1:22.145; 15. Alexander Wurz (Austria) Benetton, 1:22.297; 16. Olivier Panis (France) Prost, 1:22.442; 17. Shinji Nakano (Japan) Minardi, 1:22.940; 18. Tora Takagi (Japan) Tyrrell, 1:23.261; 19. Pedro Diniz (Brazil) Arrows, 1:23.450; 20. Esteban Tuero (Argentina) Minardi, 1:23.671; 21. Ricardo Rosset (Brazil) Tyrrell, 1:25.611; 22. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Prost, 1:25.700.
