David Coulthard faces the biggest test of his Formula One Grand Prix title credentials in Montreal on Sunday, and he insists he is not out of contention.
Coulthard knows he cannot afford to let McLaren team-mate Mika Hakkinen extend his 17 points advantage at the top with the mid-way point of the season drawing near. The pressure will be on the 27-year-old Scot in the Canadian Grand Prix as he has to start pegging back Hakkinen's lead - preferably with a victory.
''Mika's advantage might seem quite a lot, but things can change very quickly,'' said Coulthard, who saw his title hopes suffer with a blown engine at Monaco.
''I'm not giving up the title by any means. I still think I have a very good chance of winning it this year.
''I'm confident I can do well in Montreal this weekend. I was looking good there last year until a pit-stop went wrong, so there's no reason why I can't win this time.''
Coulthard looked on course for his second victory of the season last year as he held a big lead over Michael Schumacher. But when he made a precautionary pit-stop, a clutch problem handed the advantage to Schumacher and within a few laps the race was stopped 15 laps early following the horrific accident to Olivier Panis.
Coulthard knows if Hakkinen extends his lead to more than 20 points, he will be difficult to catch with the mid-way mark reached in France in three weeks' time.
Monaco-based Coulthard has to find a way of putting the brakes on his team-mate, who is clearly in inspired from having waited so long for his chance of the title.
The Finn's victory in Monte Carlo was his fourth in six races and if he can continue in the same vein, he could threaten the record of nine wins in a season, jointly held by Schumacher and Britain's Nigel Mansell.
Coulthard, who is five points ahead of Schumacher, could find himself needing victories in the second half of the campaign when the competition is much tougher because McLaren's rivals should have closed some of the gap.
World champion Jacques Villeneuve is not ruling out his title hopes despite being 38 points adrift. He believes his home race on Sunday could be a turning point for the Williams team, which will debut its revamped car.
''The race could be the salvation of my season,'' said Villeneuve, without a win so far. ''All we need is a little bit of luck and some bad luck on Mika. I don't think David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher have a big enough lead for us not to catch them.''
Canadian Grand Prix
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article