Australian GP: McLaren Friday notes

West McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard finished Friday's free practice sessions for the opening race of the 2002 FIA Formula One World Championship in 7th and 11th places respectively. Kimi made his GP debut for the West McLaren Mercedes team setting a time of 1:29.875 and completed 27 laps whilst David's time was 1:30.312. He completed 25 laps of the Albert Park circuit.

KIMI RAIKKONEN

"There is no doubt that the weather conditions made things tricky today and changed our planned programme a bit. We had a few minor problems and like most teams we have a completely new car here so we just need to familiarise ourselves with how it works at this particular track. I"m now looking forward to tomorrow"s qualifying."

DAVID COULTHARD

"Its great to be back in action again. We didn"t run in the latter half of the second session as there was a problem with the left rear wheel, so I didn"t get a quick run on new tyres which was a shame. The weather made things a bit difficult so let"s see what happens tomorrow when hopefully the sun will be shining."

RON DENNIS

"A reasonably normal Friday practice session apart from the weather which interrupted our programme but we used the time available to concentrate on race set-up. I"m sure everybody would appreciate better weather tomorrow."

NORBERT HAUG

"David lost about half of the second session following a problem with the wheel hub. We will not know where we are in comparison with the competition until tomorrow"s qualifying."

David Coulthard - Chassis 02
Kimi Raikkonen - Chassis 03
T-car (David) - Chassis 01

Session 1- Ambient temperature: 16 C
Session 1 -Track temperature: 15 -21 C

Session 2 - Ambient temperature: 17 C
Session 2 -Track temperature: 20 C

-mclaren-