F1: Coulthard desperate to finish

David Coulthard is hoping to give his flagging title hopes a much-needed boost by scoring a second successive Brazilian Grand Prix victory in Sao Paulo on Sunday.

Coulthard, 31 yesterday, desperately needs a result at Interlagos after he failed to finish the opening two races. He now trails defending champion Michael Schumacher by 14 points.

‘‘Although I have had a difficult start to the 2002 season, the West McLaren Mercedes team does have a package that is capable of winning races,’’ insisted Coulthard. ‘‘We have all been working hard to increase reliability.

‘‘The desired outcome for me in Brazil would be a repeat of last year’s result. However, I am primarily focused on opening my points tally for 2002.’’

Coulthard admitted he only had an ‘outside chance’ of finally lifting the drivers’ crown as he followed up his retirement in Australia with another reliability failure in Malaysia a fortnight ago.

If he were to repeat last year’s excellent victory in Brazil then at least he would be able to keep Schumacher and the Williams duo of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher in sight going into the first European race.

Schumacher currently has 14 points and is two ahead of Montoya, who has finished second in both races, with his younger brother Ralf just two points further adrift following his victory in Kuala Lumpur.

But another grand prix without a point would leave Coulthard, runner-up in the drivers’ standings last year, facing the remaining 14 races with little prospect of figuring in the title battle this time.

‘‘Following the engine failures in the last grand prix, our main target was to achieve reliability again,’’ said Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug, who also saw Kimi Raikkonen’s race ended early in Malaysia by a blown engine.

Coulthard must hope that Ferrari’s decision to give Schumacher the 2002 car for the first time this season will rebound on them and that it is the title pacesetter who will struggle with reliability.

But chances are that the four-time champion will now be even more competitive on a track where he has won three times already in 1994, 1995 and 2000.

Coulthard’s victory was the first time in eight years that the man who triumphed in Brazil did not go on to win the World Championship.

Schumacher, meanwhile, has backed the new rule which will allow race stewards to punish any driver who causes an accident this weekend by relegating him 10 places on the grid for the next race in Italy.

‘‘I don’t think this is anything to do with the accidents we’ve seen this year,’’ said Schumacher, who insisted it would not affect his driving style.

‘‘It’s just a more sensible way of trying to penalise someone who doesn’t behave, instead of banning them for the whole race.

‘‘You always try to comply with the rules. So for me, at least, I don’t see any reason why I should change anything in my approach.’’