Formula 1

European GP: McLaren Friday practice notes

Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Alex Wurz, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen finished today's second practice session at the NÃ¼rburgring in first, fourth and fifth places setting times of 1:30.623, 1:31.841 and 1:31.870 respectively. Alex ...

Published: May 28, 2005, 2:46 PM

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Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Alex Wurz, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen finished today's second practice session at the Nürburgring in first, fourth and fifth places setting times of 1:30.623, 1:31.841 and 1:31.870 respectively. Alex completed a total of 49 laps, with Juan Pablo completing 20 and Kimi 22.

Juan Pablo Montoya:

"I am happy with the set up of the car after today's two sessions. I have suffered from understeer in the past races, this has been improved over the last few weeks and now the car suits my driving style much better, especially on a circuit which is notorious for understeer. We still have some work to do but overall I am generally pleased."

Kimi Raikkonen:

"A satisfying outcome of today's free practice. Obviously we are working in the right direction, although I am not perfectly happy with the set up of the car. We now have to evaluate our Michelin tyre choice with all the data we gathered. I didn't experience any problems during the two practice sessions. I like the circuit which is really fun to drive on and I am looking forward to tomorrow's qualifying and the race on Sunday.

Alex Wurz:

"I am glad to show how competitive we are. I think the car and I are in best form. I could have even been a little faster however I experienced some traffic in the first sector of my fastest lap. I now have to sit together with our engineers and my team mates for a detailed analysis of our data to work out the ideal strategy for the race."

Ron Dennis:

"A reliable and uneventful first day with us, as always, concentrating on our Michelin tyre choice and race set up. The team has come here highly motivated and has every intention of keeping the momentum of the past few races."

Norbert Haug:

"A productive first practice day, in which we ran our planned programme and collected useful data. The lap times are good and consistent. We now have to continue to work on further improving the set up for qualifying and the race. So far it is difficult to say where we are compared to our competition."

Chassis allocation
Kimi Raikkonen: MP4-20 04
Juan Pablo Montoya: MP4-20 05
Alex Wurz: MP4-20 03
Spare: MP4-20 06

-mclaren-

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