04/03/2005
NEWS STORY
Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya finished in second and fifth positions overall after setting fastest times of 1:25.676 and 1:26.227 respectively during today's two Free Practice sessions. Kimi completed 15 laps in total whilst Juan Pablo did 18. Third driver Pedro de la Rosa undertook the majority of the running and set a fastest time of 1:25.376 and completed 46 laps. Pedro was the fastest driver overall.
Kimi Raikkonen: "Juan Pablo and I did limited amount of running today. After my first run we decided to change the gear ratios, which meant I only did one run in the first session, but it didn't affect our programme. It's good to be back racing again, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend."
Juan Pablo Montoya: "The track got faster and faster as more rubber was laid down. I limited my running to conserve the package, and we will rely a lot on Pedro's feedback in the debriefs to help us make the right tyre choice. Its great being in Australia with my new team, and I look forward to tomorrow when we will get more of an idea where we are compared to the competition, but so far so good."
Pedro de la Rosa: "I focused on evaluating our Michelin tyres today. This is the first time we have been able to run at relatively high track temperatures, so we learnt a lot. On one of my laps during a long run in the second session one of the Jordans and me touched and I ended up in the gravel, but there was no damage so I was able to carry on. I really enjoyed driving in front of the enthusiastic Australian spectators and will spend the rest of the weekend helping the engineers."
Ron Dennis: "Today we went through our planned programme focusing on tyre evaluation and finding the optimum set-up and it's been an encouraging start to the weekend. The entire team has worked hard to prepare for the first race in 2005 and today was no exception."
Norbert Haug: "A productive first Friday free practice under the new regulations. All three drivers ran tyre comparison programmes with Pedro undertaking different race weekend simulation programmes without any problems."