San Marino GP: McLaren race notes

West McLaren Mercedes driver David Coulthard finished today's San Marino Grand Prix in sixth place. Team mate Kimi Raikkonen retired from fifth on lap 44. Kimi came in for his pitstop after 30 laps and it lasted 10.8 seconds. David had his pitstops after 34 and 49 laps in 7.2 and 6.8 seconds respectively. David and Kimi are sixth and seventh in the Drivers' World Championship with five and four points. The West McLaren Mercedes team is third in the Constructors' World Championship with nine points.

DAVID COULTHARD

"I really lacked grip throughout the race. At the start I had a lot of understeer which took some time to clear and then the rear began to slide. We dropped some wing for the race to increase speed but it didn't really help. I extracted the maximum I could from the car but we just couldn't keep up."

KIMI RAIKKONEN

"A fairly uneventful race for me. The car was handling pretty well, but we just didn't have the speed to be at the front. The team told me to retire after the exhaust broke, and they detected hot gasses on the suspension. We will continue to work on improving the package and hopefully we will see results soon."

RON DENNIS

"Our lack of pace is a direct reflection of those elements of the package, which are not where they need to be. Whilst Kimi's exhaust failure triggered a prudent decision to stop the car, the reality is that we have known since Malaysia that it's going to take time to close the gap to the front of the grid. Nothing but hard and focused work over a period of time can fulfil that objective and none of those values are in short supply in the West McLaren Mercedes team."

NORBERT HAUG

"The weekend's results show our current performance level. We are too slow and everybody in the team knows that we have to improve and work even harder. Unfortunately Kimi lost fifth place when his exhaust broke and he had to come in."

David Coulthard: Chassis 05
Kimi Raikkonen: Chassis 04
T-car (Kimi): Chassi 02

-mclaren-