Monaco GP Benetton Free Practice wrap-up

The Mild Seven Benetton Renault Sport team had a promising first day's practice ahead of Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix.

Giancarlo Fisichella ended the day 11th-fastest with a best lap of 1m22.214s, despite getting hardly any running time in the first session, while his team-mate Jenson Button, who got even less track time than the Italian, was 17th-quickest with a time of 1m24.026s.

The team's Engineering Director Pat Symonds commented afterwards:

"Monaco is always a hectic circuit and today we made work even harder for ourselves because we found a problem with our control software after the installation lap.

"That tool some time to fix and consequently neither driver was able to manage a sensible run this morning, however in the afternoon session I think we recovered well.

"The car seems much more competitive here and Giancarlo's position reflects that," he added. "Unfortunately Jenson had to stop during the afternoon session because of a substantial water leak. He didn't get a chance to run on new tyres and hence he is a little further down the order."

Giancarlo Fisichella was fairly pleased with his day's work, adding:

"We worked a little bit on the set-up, which helped us find more traction and grip," he explained.

"Given recent results, we are quite happy with our position today and it will be fantastic on Saturday if we can qualify somewhere within the first six rows. And as always," he added, "we are doing our maximum."

His team-mate Jenson Button was less happy, but knew that the weekend wasn't over yet, saying:

"I know we can do better and I'm pushing as hard as I can to get there. Our performance has picked up today, compared to recent races, and I think we have a better basis from which to make progress.

"If anything, my chassis was perhaps set a bit too low today but we will sort that out for qualifying," he added.

The Mild Seven Benetton Renault Sport team are next on track on Saturday morning at 0900hrs local time for the final practice sessions ahead of the afternoon's all-important qualifying hour.

-Benetton-