David Coulthard in 1998

The McLaren team were by far and a way the best performers in winter testing and this must have worried a few teams. It was debatable whether they would be as good in the race and it was in no uncertain terms proved they are the best car on the grid. David had a good battle with Mika in qualifying, Mika only just edging him out for pole position. The race was an interesting one with David in second place until Mika made an unusual tour down into the pit lane only to go straight past the garage. David now in first place was looking like a repeat win in Melbourne, but with Mika catching and a prior race driver agreement, David pulled over to let Mika take the glory. Let's hope that Mika abides by these agreements in future races and he will get the chance to repay David for his good sportsman like behaviour.

Finished 2nd

OK so McLaren proved a point in Australia, with the car taking everyone to the cleaners, and sparking a good deal of controversy. They were still in the black books in Brazil with their braking system declared illegal. However, this mattered not one jot as the car still walked it. Mika and David were on the front row, they lapped the field, and came 1-2 once again, with Mika slightly having an edge on David. The other teams have got a lot of catching up to do, and let's hope they do cos we want to see some racing at the top of field.

Finished 2nd

David came to Argentina looking to beat Hakkinen and take his first win of the season. It looked like this was entirely possible following the McLaren dominance of the first 2 races. Mika was struggling to get a good set up and David was able to capitalise despite strong efforts from Ferrari and qualify on pole. The start went well and David was in the lead. However, Michael was pressuring and David was forced into making a mistake in the hairpin. Schumacher saw his opportunity and took it. David didn't leave enough room for both cars and David spun, but managed to recover back into 6th place, but leaving Michael Schumacher in the lead. David wasn't able to pass the cars battling for the last of the points and following another collision with Villeneuve it was surprising that David still got home to get that last point.
David needs to shape up his act as Mika pulled out another 5 points in the championship on him, which with Ferrari coming into the picture is not a good sign for British champion at the end of the season.

Finished 6th

Well David had to take a fair bit of criticism after his performance in Argentina and he was determined to make amends for that. A good qualifying session led to David taking the pole position he needed. The start would be crucial and David kept it calm to take the lead into the first bend. There he stayed and despite slowing towards the end was able to take the car over the line in first place. A good well deserved win for David, and he has closed the gap in the championship to 3 points.

Finished 1st

McLaren's dominated the weekend Spain, however, it was Mika who had managed to set the car up better and David had to make do with being number 2. The McLaren's drove away in the race for another 1-2 finish. The gap between Mika and David did narrow during the race but this was mainly due to traffic. David will need to give Mika a better run for his money in Monaco if he wants to win the world championship.

Finished 2nd

Monaco is a great circuit for showing real driver talents and David would have been looking to prove a thing or two to his critics. Qualifying was a close scrap between the McLaren drivers with Fisichella also getting in on the act. However, once again Mika managed to get the better lap and would start the Monaco GP from pole. David would need to make a great start from 2nd to get past Mika if he was going to win the race. Again, Mika made a good start and David had to settle for 2nd. He did harry Mika for a good part of the race but it would have been unlikely that he would have got past Mika. In the end it was David's turn to have an engine failure and he was out of the race.

Retired, engine failure

David Coulthard needed a race win to put him back in contention for the championship after his retirement in Monaco. Qualifying was very close and David managed to pull one out of the bag and take a much needed pole position. The start for the race would be crucial if David was going to win. Two starts were needed and both times David was able to pull away and take the lead into the first corner. It was all going to plan, even though Schumacher was pushing David hard in 2nd place. However, it was not to be and he was forced to retire with engine problems. Mika Hakkinen didn't finish either and McLaren showed that they are not infallible.

Retired, engine problems.

David Coulthard is needing some good results if he is to keep in the running for the championship. A good qualifying performance was needed, however, the Ferrari are coming back at McLaren and David was only able to get third place on the grid, which was going to make it difficult to win. The two McLarens made poor starts on the restarted race and let the two Ferraris by. The McLarens couldn't seem to do anything about that. David had a brief attempt to harry Eddie after a spin by McLaren but disastrous refuelling problems in the pit stops forced David to drop back and he was only able to get the last point in 6th place.

Finished 6th

David was hoping to become another British winner of Silverstone, and he really needed it to keep his championship hopes alive. However, qualifying was a big disappointment with 4th place. Apparently, this was due to a slight problem with David's car, which was later sorted out. Sunday warm-up saw David fastest and hopes for that British win were good. However, the rain was a major problem and the rain-master Michael Schumacher was going to have something to say about that. The race started well for David, quickly getting into third place, and he set about catching the German. In an outstanding move on Michael at Abbey, David was soon into second and needing to pass Mika Hakkinen for the win. However, the rain continued to poor, and Abbey was soon to David's downfall. In amongst backmarkers, David got into a very wet patch at Abbey and lost the car very quickly under braking and his hopes were dashed. David is now going to have a serious problem to be in contention for the championship with a 26 point deficit to Mika Hakkinen.

Retired, spun off

David needed to be on a mission in Austria to keep any hopes of the championship. In qualifying it looked like that this mission would fail miserably at the first hurdle. The wet and drying conditions saw David qualifying in only 14th place, 'hmmmn' thought David. The race also started disastrously and David was involved in a spin with the Arrows of Mika Salo. Mika Salo power-spun his car to get back in the race and in the process took off David's front wing. David was forced to pit and it turned out to be just the wing which was quickly replaced and fortunately under safety car conditions, so the time lost was kept to a minimum. OK, so David was now at the back, but he drove an outstanding race and sliced through the field in his storming McLaren to get back to 2nd place on only lap 29. There had to stay as the car in front was another McLaren and he would not get close enough to challenge Mika Hakkinen. Well, David has silenced a few critics, but sadly this may all be too late as the championship gap to Mika has extended to 30 points.

Finished 2nd

David came to Germany acknowledging that Mika was going to give McLaren their best chances of the championship. He made a good effort in qualifying to see if he could get pole position, but Mika again had the edge. At the start David and Mika made good ones and they were swiftly into a 1-2 position. There they stayed despite later fuel problems for Mika Hakkinen. David could undoubtedly have gone faster in the closing stages but he decided to let Mika keep the lead for that important championship. David will now most likely play second fiddle to Mika for the remainder of the year now.

Finished 2nd

Well we know now that David is going to do all he can to help Mika win the world championship, so the best we could hope for in Hungary would be 2nd place. Again in qualifying David was unable to get pole and secured another 2nd place. The start of the race went all according to plan to with Mika leading and David 2nd, however, Michael Schumacher was omniously close behind. Pit stop strategy seemed to show that Ferrari and McLaren were on 2 stop strategies but this was not the case. Schumacher came in early and put hardly any fuel in, and this proved the be a master of tatics. The McLaren's responded by coming in but this allowed Michael to come out ahead after some flying laps and there he stayed. Mika Hakkinen suffered a problem and David was left to pick up the places and finish 2nd.

Finished 2nd

David Coulthard was the man at the center of it all in Belgium! Qualifying was the usual McLaren result with David having to make do with another 2nd place on the grid. Come the start of the race David lost control of his McLaren at the 1st bend and caused total mayhem as he careered across the track causing everyone to pile up behind him, with only a few lucky few excaping unscathed. So a second start is required and David's luck doesn't change when he and Wurz go off into the gravel trap. David is able to rejoin but is now well down the field. Later in the race David is being lapped by Michael Schumacher and David slows coming into the bus stop to let him pass. However, Schumacher doesn't go past and just ploughs into the back of him, and I expect Mika Hakkinen had a good laugh at that one. David was certainly not to blame but that didn't stop Michael running to the McLaren pit to have words! Still, the McLaren team managed to fix the car but there were not enough retirements for David to pick up any points.

Finished 7th

David Coulthard had an eventful and disappointing race in Belgium and things would hopefully go batter in Monza. Qualifying was not too brilliant with a drying track and both of the McLaren's failed to get on the front row with David in 4th place. However, at the start both McLaren's flew off the grid and were in their usual 1-2 position before the 1st bend. David was a lot faster than Mika and could well have been on a 2 stop strategy. He was able to get past Mika soon into the race which adds weight to the 2 stop theory. David was able to pull away quite well, but we weren't to see David leading for long. His engine expired on lap 16. So we didn't find out whether David would have been able to help in the championship. My view would be that if he had been able to keep going he could well have won the race.

Retired

The championship contenders are tied on 80 points and David needed to be in a postion to do all he could to help Mika for the championship. Unusually though the McLaren's were a little off the pace of the Ferraris in qualifying and following great laps from the 2 Ferraris and a flying lap from Fisichella, David had to settle for 5th on the grid. Not a great position to help Mika. Anyway, Mika drove well to win the race and didn't really need David's help. David was able to run well behind Mika and 3rd spot on the podium was enough for McLaren to virtually so up the constructors championship, they need just 1 point from the last race.

Finished 3rd

David was going to have to try and do all he could for Mika and the world championship in Japan. He tried to be as near to the front as he could for the start and he did so by securing 3rd spot on the grid. However, he was still a second behind Hakkinen and really this gap should have been less. We were looking for an exciting start with Eddie Irvine right behind David in 4th place. However, we needed two starts following stalled cars on the grid and one was Schumacher, which effectively meant his hope of the championship had gone. Coulthard needed to do his best to protect Mika's lead. However, it Coulthard didn't make the best of starts and he let Frentzen through into 3rd and it took David a lot longer than it should have to get past him, only doing so after the first round of pit stops. It didn't matter too much with Michael Schumacher a long way behind but it would have been a different story if Schuey hadn't slipped up. So a new season awaits David with McLaren and he is going to need to improve if he is to running for the championship next year.

Finished 3rd