British GP: McLaren Friday qualifying notes

Team McLaren Mercedes drivers David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen finished today's first qualifying session at Silverstone in seventh and 12th after setting times of 1:19.968 and 1:21.065 respectively.

David Coulthard:

"I'm reasonably happy as the times are pretty close at the top. I was a little bit too cautious in the first sector compared to this morning's practice, as I wasn't sure about the weather conditions. It was spitting with rain whilst they were recovering Rubens' car, but in the end the track was fairly dry and as a result I know there is more to come tomorrow. In Friday's qualifying the main thing is to ensure that your lap time is good enough to put you in the same group as your main competitors, so you will have roughly the same track conditions in tomorrow's qualifying, which is when it really counts."

Kimi Raikkonen:

"I have struggled a bit to get comfortable with the car today, so we will be looking at where we can make improvements before tomorrow. During my qualifying run I made a mistake at Stowe, which cost me a lot of time. However its tomorrow's session which is important, so we will wait and see what happens then."

Ron Dennis, Team principal:

"The higher ambient temperature, which is predicted for tomorrow and Sunday, will certainly help our competitiveness. Kimi's mistake at Stowe kept him out of the top group, but neither his nor David's seventh position should hamper their ability to qualify well tomorrow."

Norbert Haug, Mercedes motorsport director:

"As has often happened in this year's Friday qualifying sessions, we are not where we want to be. The competition seems to be pretty close as there is only a little more than two tenths of a second between second place and David's seventh. "

David Coulthard: MP4-17D 08
Kimi Raikkonen: MP4-17D 09
T-car (Kimi): MP4-17D 07
Spare: MP4-17D 06

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