8 July: British Grand Prix - Friday Practice Report - McLaren Mercedes
Team McLaren Mercedes driver Pedro de la Rosa emerged fastest from today's two practice sessions at Silverstone for Sunday's
British Grand Prix with a time of 1:18.530. Team mates Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen were fourth and fifth respectively
overall with times of 1:20.252 and 1:20.384.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA "The outcome of today's runs was satisfying. We
made significant progress with our Michelin tyre evaluation programme. I experienced a bit of understeer in the first sector
especially through Becketts, but otherwise I'm happy with the performance of our package. I think we should have another strong
weekend, but I'm going to work extra hard on my qualifying lap to balance out having to go out somewhat early."
KIMI
RAIKKONEN "An uneventful practice which is always a bonus. We had a good basis from the last time we tested here at
Silverstone, but there is still some work to do before everything is perfect. It was quite windy which caused some understeer which
we tried to balance out. I'm not 100 per cent happy with the car at the moment but the lap times seem to be OK, so hopefully we can
put in a strong challenge for pole position tomorrow."
PEDRO DE LA ROSA "I'm very pleased with our overall
performance. The car works very well here at Silverstone. The two long runs in the second session with 17 and 16 laps provided us
with plenty of useful data, which should give my team mates a basis for the rest of the weekend. The Michelin tyres are performing
well, but we still have to work a little on the balance at high speeds. We made some changes to the car's set-up between the
sessions which worked very well."
RON DENNIS "Silverstone lap times have always been reflective of the
grip levels, which vary considerably from week to week and together with today's breezy conditions made finding the set-up a little
more challenging. The weather forecast for the balance of the weekend seems to be ever improving which I think will suit our team,
and we will continue to work hard to ensure a competitive showing in Sunday's race."
NORBERT HAUG "Today
we undertook a comprehensive programme. The team and the drivers found a good baseline for tomorrow's qualifying and Sunday's
race."
