Hungarian GP: McLaren Friday practice notes

West McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen emerged fastest overall following today's two practice sessions for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix with a time of 1.20.884. Team mate David Coulthard's time of 1:21.203 puts him fourth overall.

Kimi Raikkonen:

"A positive start to the weekend. We completed our pre-planned programme without any problems. As always we were busy evaluating tyres, and I believe we have a good picture of what we are going to do. The car handled well straight away which is always an advantage. However, it's early days and we need to see what happens tomorrow, but for sure it's better to be first on a Friday than 10th."

David Coulthard:

"An encouraging start, but obviously we have to wait and see how the weekend develops. However, we had a good chance to evaluate the set up and tyres, so a good day's work, The past has shown that it's very difficult to overtake at this circuit, so a strong starting position is important, and I think we are going in the right direction."

Ron Dennis:

"With the Hungaroring not hosting many motorsports events it's inevitable that the first day's practice sees the lap times steadily decrease as the track gets cleaner and cleaner. This complicates the tyre choice process for both the engineers and the drivers. However our own running has been encouraging so far, and now that we have made our tyre choice we will concentrate on further optimising the cars."

Norbert Haug:

"Today we have been fast and consistent and are continuously going in the right direction with the development of the MP4-19B. This circuit makes it challenging to find the right set-up, so now we have to see what our efforts are worth in tomorrow's qualifying and the race on Sunday."

David Coulthard: MP4-19B 03
Kimi Raikkonen: MP4-19B 01
T-car (David): MP4-19B 02

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