Häkkinen remained at McLaren for 1998, partnered by Coulthard. Häkkinen was confident going about the challenge for the World Championship into the season, citing the involvement of technical director Adrian Newey. The season started off with controversy in Australia when teammate Coulthard let Häkkinen past to win the race. Häkkinen had earlier been called into the pit lane by an engineer by mistake. Coulthard later revealed a pre-race agreement by the team that whoever led into the first corner on the first lap would be allowed to win the race. Despite this, Häkkinen took back-to-back victories by winning the next race in Brazil. He maintained his good form at the Argentine Grand Prix where he finished second, although he retired from the San Marino Grand Prix when his car's gearbox failed. However, Häkkinen managed consecutive victories in the next two rounds, which was followed by a retirement from the race in Canada as his car suffered another gearbox failure.