MP4-20 shakedown for Raikkonen at Silverstone

Team McLaren Mercedes preparations for the Australian Grand Prix continued apace at the Silverstone circuit in the UK today. Kimi Raikkonen was in attendance to shakedown the MP4-20 that he will be driving at Melbourne in 11 days time.

The shakedown was scheduled to allow the team to run Kimi's chassis before the first Grand Prix of the new season, as it had been rebuilt at the McLaren Technology Centre following the damage sustained in Barcelona on Tuesday 15th February.

The session was affected by poor weather conditions in the UK, with the snow that had fallen overnight only melting mid-morning. Kimi took to the track at 14:00 and completed the required programme, whilst conducting various systems checks on the car including fuel and hydraulics.

At the end of the day, the MP4-20 returned to the McLaren Technology Centre, where it will be packed ready to leave for Australia this coming Friday, 25th February.

As a consequence of the FIA regulation that states that teams are not permitted to simultaneously test at more than one circuit, the test team based in Valencia this week spent the day preparing the two MP4-19B's for tomorrow's session at the Spanish track, where work will focus on distance tyre testing with the compounds selected for Australia.

-mclaren-