French GP: McLaren Saturday notes

Team McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen will start tomorrow's Mobil 1 French Grand Prix from fourth position after setting a fastest time of 1:12.244. David Coulthard's time of 1:12.498 puts him sixth on the grid.

KIMI RAIKKONEN

"Fourth is my best qualifying performance ever, but I'm still a bit disappointed as I could have been third or perhaps even second. However I made a mistake in the first sector on my last run and as a result I lost some time which was a shame. The tyres were working well and I can't see why that should not be the case for the race tomorrow if the conditions stay the same."

DAVID COULTHARD

"We can be quite encouraged by the fact that the gap to the competition is less than in previous races, but we are where we expected to be. I had a bit of oversteer which improved during the session, but it made it hard to really attack the corners. We hope the package will work well in race trim and I think the challenge will be to find a consistent balance as the race will be hard particularly on the rear tyres."

RON DENNIS

"An interesting qualifying session which has seen the improvements to our package manifesting themselves in better lap times. We will be able to carry most of the pace into the race and a good result should be possible."

NORBERT HAUG

"An exciting qualifying session with Kimi being two and a half tenths away from pole position. The half a second time gap between the first three rows with David in sixth place hasn't been so small for a long time, so let's hope for a good race."

David Coulthard: Chassis 08
Kimi Raikkonen: Chassis 06
T-car (David): Chassis 07

-mclaren-