23 April: San Marino Grand Prix - Saturday Qualifying Report - McLaren Mercedes
West McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen finished today's first qualifying session with the fastest time whilst Alex was
eighth. Kimi set a time of 1:19.886 whilst Alex's time was 1:20.632 in a close qualifying when the first 10 cars all finished within
less than a second.
Kimi Raikkonen "The car has felt really good all weekend here. I pushed as hard as I could,
and I am pleased to finally have completed a good qualifying lap. The car suits this circuit better than the previous tracks. It
will now be interesting to see how the fuel loads of the competition will influence qualifying and the race tomorrow. However I feel
positive as we have demonstrated this year that we are strong in the race."
Alex Wurz "I was very happy
with my lap today as I did not make any mistakes. Unfortunately I was at a disadvantage as I was going out very early in the session
when the track was very slippery. As a result my time was not as quick as the one I had previously achieved this morning. However I
am confident that I can improve in tomorrow's qualifying and race as our set up suits this circuit well."
Ron Dennis "A
great lap from Kimi which resulted in us having some margin over the provisional second row for tomorrow's qualifying. Alex put in a
very professional performance coping well with the less than perfect conditions. Overall the entire team is moving forward, and a
good result tomorrow is possible."
Norbert Haug "An extremely exciting qualifying with a gap of just three
thousandths of a second between Kimi, who drove a superb lap, and Fernando Alonso. Alex performed very well with his eighth place
taking into account that he was out as the second driver when track conditions were still bad. Our speed is there so far this
weekend, however we have to see how we compare in tomorrow's qualifying and race when we expect a close and tough competition.
Obviously we have improved our first lap performance during our testing in Le Castellet last week, and the whole team got the
benefit today. "
