Italian GP Friday McLaren notes

The West McLaren Mercedes team worked through a number of set-ups in today's Free Practice sessions for the Italian Grand Prix. Mika was fourth fastest with a time of 1:25.553 and did 22 laps while David finished fifth setting a time of 1:25.796 and completed 18 laps.

Mika Hakkinen:
'I only managed one lap in the first session because of a problem with my gearbox. We made a lot of progress today but we still have some way to go before we can really optimise our set-up. I gained more experience of the first and second chicane where the revisions have been made and all in all I'm very optimistic.'

David Coulthard:
'A productive first practice, but unfortunately early in the second session I went off at the Lesmo corner. I'm not quite sure whether I made a mistake or if there was a problem with the car but the team is analysing the data. However I had a good test here last week where we went through a lot of work so I'm not too worried.'

Ron Dennis:
'A somewhat eventful day with Mika losing the first practice session through a precautionary inspection of the transmission. David's afternoon was cut short by a spin into the gravel -- the cause of which we are still investigating.'

Norbert Haug:
'We tested for race conditions and we have found a good but not yet the optimum basis for Sunday.'