MARCH 22, 1999

McLaren dominates at Silverstone

McLAREN, Benetton, British American Racing and Arrows were all in action last week at Silverstone with McLaren working on the reliability of the cars - and everyone else trying to figure out how to catch up with the rapid silver cars.

McLAREN, Benetton, British American Racing and Arrows were all in action last week at Silverstone with McLaren working on the reliability of the cars - and everyone else trying to figure out how to catch up with the rapid silver cars. Although there were more technical problems for McLaren, David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen were able to complete a total of 254 laps (800 miles) of the Northamptonshire track, which was twice as much running as anyone else managed. Coulthard ended up with the fastest lap of 1m25.783s, which was four-tenths faster than Hakkinen's best and 1.5secs faster than Giancarlo Fisichella's best lap in his Benetton.

Fisichella and Alexander Wurz managed to complete only 110 laps between them with the Italian setting a best time of 1m27.198s and the Austrian 1m27.746s. Wurz would probably have gone faster if he had completed more than 36 laps in the course of the two days.

As a result Ricardo Zonta was able to beat his time in the BAR. The Brazilian managed 86 laps with a best of 1m27.746s as he worked on reliability and set-up. He also did a lot of pit stop practice after a race simulation ended in gearbox failure.

The Arrows team was also in action with Pedro de la Rosa completing 73 laps with a best of 1m28.224s and Tora Takagi 20 laps with a best of 1m29.185s.