San Marino GP: McLaren Friday qualifying notes

West McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard will start tomorrow's race qualifying session from eighth and ninth last after setting times of 1.22.147 and 1.22.326 respectively. The pair took to the track first and second according to their current positions in the Drivers' World Championship.

Kimi Raikkonen:

"It wasn't a particular fast lap from me today. I came in to turn 10 a bit too quickly and as a result lost speed coming out of the corner, but at the end of the day, tomorrow is when it counts. We went through our planned programme during this morning's practice and will see what happens in Saturday's qualifying."

David Coulthard:

"I don't really think we got the full potential out of the car during my one flying lap today as we would have expected to be a bit closer to our main rivals. However as always we will look at the data and work together on where we can improve for tomorrow when it really matters."

Ron Dennis, Team principal:

"This morning we spent a considerable amount of the session ensuring that we selected the correct race tyre. This limited the time we were able to devote to optimising the car's set up, which is clearly not yet there. Our engineers will now focus on that challenge for tomorrow's qualifying, which of course is the one that determines our grid positions for the race."

Norbert Haug, Mercedes-Benz motorport director:

"We are not happy with our performance today but we will be working very hard to be better tomorrow."

David Coulthard: MP4-17D 08
Kimi Raikkonen: MP4-17D 06
T-car (David): MP4-17D 07
Spare: MP4-17D 09

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