DAVID Coulthard will experience the energy-sapping Hungaroring, near
Budapest, for the first time today as the Williams-Renault driver
tackles the task of qualifying for his fifth grand prix.
Arguably, three podium finishes -- in Spain, Britain, and Germany --
have been forfeited by niggling technical problems and the crude
intervention of suspended McLaren-Peugeot driver Mika Hakkinen, so the
23-year-old Scot is aiming for a clear run.
A quick learner of new tracks, Coulthard demonstrated that the revised
Williams FW16B should be a force to be reckoned with in Hungary, when he
and team-mate Damon Hill posted identical times at a Silverstone test
session.
After the first-lap fracas with the impetuous Finn Hakkinen, and
before the gearbox gremlins ended his race, Coulthard consistently
lapped Hockenheim at a pace more than one second faster than Gerhard
Berger's winning Ferrari.
But ifs, buts and maybes do not feature in the record books and, to
date, his five races have netted two fifth places, the
position at Silverstone being upgraded after championship leader
Michael Schumacher's deletion from second place.
Coulthard is not one for feeble excuses and has been working on race
fitness with an intensive programme at Willi Dungl's Austrian clinic
under the supervision of trainer Josef Leberer, formerly Ayrton Senna's
adviser on physical fitness and diet.
The Hungarian race is physically very taxing, a factor which could
provide Coulthard with reason to be grateful for the regime of gym work
and hiking. Coulthard and Hill have about four centimetres of
accelerator pedal between no power and the muscle-wrenching 800 horse
power their Renault engines deliver.
His main preoccupation must be to avoid another first-lap tangle,
because the switchback Hungaroring is notoriously dusty, and anyone who
strays off the racing line risks a visit to the gravel traps, grass or
trackside barriers.
Meanwhile, the flow of aspiring Scottish grand prix talent continues
in spate with Peter Dumbreck holding his lead in the hectic Formula
Vauxhall Junior championship and Jamie Campbell-Walter and Alex Jack in
supporting fourth and fifth places.
David Leslie, former mentor of Coulthard, Allan McNish, and Dario
Franchitti, is advising Oban-born Campbell-Walter, whose form surge has
produced two second places and a recent Knockhill victory.
To complete the disproportionate Scottish influence, 16-year-old Chris
Buchan continues to dominate the formula's new junior class for hungry
young men yet to gain the right to drive to and from the circuits.
At the other end of the experience scale is John Cleland, Vauxhall
touring car stalwart, whose 10-year-old son Niki (named after triple
world champion Lauda) made his junior cadet class karting debut at
Larkhall last weekend.
The worldly Cleland was stunned by the degree of professionalism and
competitiveness involved at this level, with 32-driver grids and leading
karters testing midweek between races.
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