18/06/2004
NEWS STORY
West McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen finished today's free practice in 10th position after setting a fastest time of 1:12.197 around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Team mate David Coulthard completed nine laps in the first practice session. However on his outlap at the start of the second practice, his car stopped at Turn eight with an electrical fault and he was unable to take part in the rest of the practice session.
Kimi Raikkonen: "We completed our tyre evaluation programme and will continue working on finding a good set up in tomorrow's two practice sessions. It can be quite tricky here as you have to find a good balance both for the full throttle part and the in-field section. I like this track and enjoyed my first couple of laps familiarising myself with the lay out."
David Coulthard: "Obviously I lost some track time as I was unable to take part in the second session which is a shame. All of a sudden at Turn eigth the car just stopped and there was nothing I could do. Kimi collected quite a bit of data which should help us in making the best tyre choice possible, and we have two practice sessions tomorrow morning before qualifying and the race."
Ron Dennis: "Trading off straight line speed for infield grip is always the difficult technical decision that all the teams have to make here at the Indianapolis circuit. History shows that the best qualifying lap doesn't necessarily mean that you have the best car for the race, which is what makes the US Grand Prix interesting."
Norbert Haug: "We went through our race preparation programme with Kimi, which went quite well. Unfortunately David lost the second session due to an electrical fault which didn't help his set-up work."