01/04/2005
NEWS STORY
West McLaren Mercedes drivers Alex Wurz, Pedro de la Rosa and Kimi Raikkonen finished today's second practice session at the Bahrain International Circuit in first, fourth and eighth places setting times of 1:30.695, 1:32.333 and 1.32.988 respectively. Alex completed a total of 33 laps, with Pedro totalling 22 and Kimi 23.
Pedro de la Rosa: "Today was problem free for me and I am happy with the set-up of the car. The times today are not always a true reflection of the situation, however I feel we can be competitive as we clearly have the pace, and I am looking forward to seeing how the rest of the weekend evolves."
Kimi Raikkonen: "We completed our programme today as planned, and I am happy with the set up of the car, it is not quite perfect yet but this should be improved by tomorrow. It was very hot out there today with temperatures on track reaching 52 degrees Celsius which makes it rather challenging and the selection of the right Michelin tyres even more important to the whole weekend."
Alex Wurz: "Today was my first time driving the MP4-20 and although this was not in the usual testing circumstances it was nevertheless a great experience, and the car felt really good. My role today has been primarily to gather the data during my 33 laps over the course of the two sessions, so that we can select which Michelin tyres will be used over the rest of the weekend. Although I do not have the experience in the car and my first session was interrupted early on due to a minor software glitch I still feel I will be able to contribute valuable input from today's running."
Ron Dennis: "A trouble free practice today, where the team completed the planned programme. What today's performance actually means in comparison to the competition we will only find out in tomorrow's and Sunday's qualifying sessions and in the race."
Norbert Haug: "Alex, Pedro and Kimi ran different programmes today evaluating tyres and preparing for the race. All three drivers performed well with their times naturally not comparable due to the different programmes they were running."