Injured Coulthard still determined

Coulthard and Hakkinen shared the winners' rostrum in Spain

David Coulthard will battle through the pain barrier at the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in Germany in his bid for more World Championship points.

The 29-year-old Scot believes he is over the mental trauma of his plane crash in France which killed both pilots.

But Coulthard will have to compete in Sunday's European Grand Prix still troubled by the three ribs he cracked in the accident.

Coulthard believes he is over the mental trauma

Coulthard goes into the race third in the drivers' championship, 16 points behind pacesetter Michael Schumacher and just two adrift of McLaren teammate Mika Hakkinen.

"For me it never happened," said Coulthard, who defied the pain to finish second behind Hakkinen in Barcelona a fortnight ago.

"I feel fine and I am focused totally on what I can get out of the car this weekend and trying to get another good result. This is an important race and hopefully we can get another one-two finish."

Loss of momentum

Coulthard, who escaped from the burning jet with fiancee Heidi Wichlinski and trainer Andy Matthews, added: "Given what happened, three cracked ribs is not much.

"Inevitably I will get some discomfort, but in all my years of racing there have always been some aches and pains.

"I just have to wait for the ribs to heal. I have been trying to do as much training as I can, but it has also been good to have some rest at home in Monaco.

"I lost a lot of the momentum I had built up at Silverstone in the crash. No-one can go through that and not have it affect them.

We are slowly chipping away at Michael's lead, but it is still going to be difficult.

David Coulthard

"I always start the build-up to the race the Monday beforehand, so when the accident happened on Tuesday it was difficult.

"But I was determined not to let if affect my performance and it didn't. Now I just want to try and get another win here."

The Twynholm-born driver believes the team's one-two in Spain, following a similar result in Britain when he beat Hakkinen, signals a change in their fortunes.

"We had a bit of a rocky start," said Coulthard.

"But we know the problems we have had as a team and have been working on them.

"We are slowly chipping away at Michael's lead, but he has had this amazing run of luck and has finished every race in the points this season so it is still going to be difficult.

"But I am very confident, given my recent results, though it is still hard thinking about those six points I lost in Brazil when I was disqualified."