Spanish GP: McLaren Friday qualifying notes

West McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard will start tomorrow's qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix eighth and ninth last. Kimi was the first car on the track as he is leading the Drivers' World Championship and set a time of 1:17.862. David came out second and did a time of 1.18.060

Kimi Raikkonen:

"The track was very dirty when I went out which definitely cost me some time and the track appeared to become cleaner towards the end, which obviously affected the times. Apart from that the day was OK and we did a bit of work with the car. Like the other teams we do a lot of testing here so we know the track well and I look forward to tomorrow."

David Coulthard:

"We went through our set programme during this morning's practice and didn't really have any problems. However during qualifying the car suffered a bit from oversteer at low speeds, which cost me some time in the first sector. There was still a lot of dirt left on the track after the earlier support race practice which affected me, but at the end of the day its tomorrow that counts."

Ron Dennis, team principal:

"Barcelona is our primary test circuit which means that we have a great deal of data available to assist in our race preparation. However this data doesn't include information about the two newly developed tyres that we are using at this event. As a result our balance is not fully optimised, which coupled with dirty circuit conditions, made today's' qualifying session a little bit difficult."

Norbert Haug, Mercedes motorsport director:

"Kimi and David went out first and second and acted as track-cleaners. The circuit was extremely dirty following the touring car practice, but tomorrow and Sunday we should be significantly better."

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

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