German GP McLaren Friday notes

West McLaren Mercedes driver Mika Hakkinen was third fastest in today's free practice sessions for Sunday's Mobil 1 German Grand Prix after setting a time of 1:41.949. David Coulthard was seventh with 1:42.304. Mika completed 29 laps and David did 31 laps.

MIKA HAKKINEN
"I'm very pleased with today's performance as we were progressing with the set-up all the time. My time was pretty good considering the amount of fuel we were running. There are still a few corners where we are struggling with the rear end of the car but we will solve them. You have to compromise with the set-up here at Hockenheim and choose either to be quick on the straights or fast in the stadium section as you can't have both."

DAVID COULTHARD
"It's good to be back in the forests in Hockenheim. Everything is working reasonably well and I went through a programme of changes to adjust the balance of the car, which tends to oversteer in the stadium section. This track is low downforce which means it can be quite tricky to set up the car as you can't rely so much on the aerodynamics to mask a mechanical problem."

RON DENNIS
"The outcome of today's practice reflects an abnormally high influence of tyres, fuel loads and ambient temperatures. I'm sure the grid tomorrow will look somewhat different."

NORBERT HAUG
"Mika's and David's performances show that we are heading in the right direction but we are not yet where we want to be with our race set-up. We are preparing for a race which will be very strenuous for cars and drivers as a result of the expected hot temperatures."

-McLaren