17 June: United States Grand Prix - Friday Practice Report - McLaren Mercedes
West McLaren Mercedes drivers Juan Pablo Montoya, Kimi Raikkonen and Pedro de la Rosa finished today's two practice sessions for
the US Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in first, second and seventh places with times of 1:11.118, 1:11.228 and
1:12.119 respectively. The running in the second session was disrupted by a red flag which lasted approximately 12 minutes as a
result of Ralf Schumacher's accident.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA "Obviously our tyre choice has become more challenging
as Pedro wasn't able to run in the first session, but we should be OK. It's quite slippery and dusty out there so we changed my
programme slightly in the first session to only do one run towards the end. However, we seem to be fast which is always the best way
to start a race weekend."
KIMI RAIKKONEN "We only intended to do one run this morning, but unfortunately I
had a bit of an off at Turn 11. I came back into the pits as the guys wanted to check the car thoroughly before the second session.
The track conditions were rather slippery, so you really had to focus and concentrate to avoid being caught out. I think we should
be in a strong position this weekend and hopefully make the Championship battle even more exciting."
PEDRO DE LA ROSA "Unfortunately
my running in the first session was cut short by a problem with the throttle pedal sensor which stopped me at Turn One. However we
still managed to get some useful data about the Michelin tyres in the second session which should allow us to make the right choice.
The track was slippery which didn't make it easy to run consistently, but we are happy with what we achieved. There is now some
analysis to be done with the engineers to decide which direction Kimi and Juan Pablo will take tomorrow with set-up and Michelin
tyre choice."
RON DENNIS "A productive practice here at Indianapolis with our focus being on Michelin tyre
evaluation. We had to change the planned programme slightly as Pedro's running in the first session was limited but in the second
practice Pedro obtained valuable data which will certainly contribute to the performance of both Kimi and Juan Pablo for the rest of
the weekend."
NORBERT HAUG "A good Friday during which we collected a lot of information about the circuit
and the tyres with the programme focusing on race set-up work and Michelin tyre comparison runs. The aim is to further improve our
package tomorrow to be competitive in qualifying and the race."
