Monaco GP McLaren Free Practice recap

Monte Carlo, Thursday 24th May, 2001

Mika Hakkinen         Chassis MP4-16/04

David Coulthard       Chassis MP4-16/05

T-car (Mika)          Chassis MP4-16/03

T-car (David)         Chassis MP4-16/01

West McLaren Mercedes driver Mika Hakkinen finished today's Free Practice by setting the fastest time of 1:19.853 around the demanding streets of Monte Carlo. David Coulthard was sixth after setting a time of 1:21.091. Mika completed 38 laps and David 33.

MIKA HAKKINEN
'Its great to be fastest in front of my adopted home crowd. This gives me confidence for the rest of the weekend. You really have to work hard to find the limits here and there is no doubt the real key is qualifying well as it's so difficult to overtake.'

DAVID COULTHARD
'In order to get a quick time you have to position the car as close to the barriers as possible. In the second session I got a bit too close and incurred some damage to the right rear suspension and lost a lot of time. whilst the team was repairing.'

RON DENNIS
'A relatively troublefree practice with only the odd 'Monaco problem' causing some delay to David's practice ? if you are not close, you are not quick. Mika had a less eventful day and ultimately did an excellent lap to set the fastest time.The engineers made good progress with the cars and hopefully we can maintain our pace throughout the entire weekend.'

NORBERT HAUG
'A good beginning to the weekend by Mika and David at their 'home' Grand Prix. Despite David losing quite some time in the pits during the second session, his sector times afterwards would have seen him in third position ? but he never had a traffic free lap.'

-McLaren-