05/05/2006
NEWS STORY
Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya finished today's second free practice session for the 2006 European Grand Prix in 13th and 17th positions respectively. Kimi set a time of 1:34.536 and completed a total of 13 laps in this afternoon's session whilst Juan's time of 1:34.968 was 17th fastest as he completed 14 laps. The morning session saw Kimi completing a total of five laps setting the eighth fastest time of 1:34.402 whilst Juan Pablo only completed an installation lap and set no time.
Kimi Raikkonen: "We have completed our programme as planned and have a good idea on which Michelin tyres we are going to select. The car's balance has not been great today and we have suffered a little from understeer but we are confident that we will find a solution and see further improvement in tomorrow's session."
Juan Pablo Montoya: "We struggled a little bit throughout both sessions with a lack of grip which tended to make the car too understeery, but even so we made progress throughout the session. Otherwise we are comfortable that we will be more competitive tomorrow going into qualifying and the race."
Ron Dennis: "An uneventful Friday practice. The grip levels today were very low making it difficult for both drivers to set-up their cars. Tomorrow should be a different story."
Norbert Haug: "We focused on running our planned programme and our times in race trim look not too bad."