US GP: McLaren Friday notes

West McLaren Mercedes driver David Coulthard emerged third fastest from today's two free practice sessions for the SAP United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. David set a time of 1:14.919. Team mate Kimi Raikkonen was immediately behind David with a time of 1:14.986. David completed 39 laps and Kimi did 30.

DAVID COULTHARD

"You always find new challenges on this track and its not easy to find the right race set up as you have to consider a compromise between the full throttle part and the tricky in-field section. Today we focused on set up for the race, but we haven't found the ideal balance yet. However our tyre evaluation programme was positive."

KIMI RAIKKONEN

"It was difficult at the beginning of the first session when the track was quite slippery. However as conditions improved, the car started to feel like normal, and we didn't experience any problems. I don't know where we will be tomorrow because Friday's practice is always a guessing game because you don't know what everybody else is doing."

RON DENNIS

"A trouble free day which saw the circuit progressively picking up grip following the extensive rain which fell over the last 24 hours. With good weather predicted for the rest of the weekend, we should be able to continue our progress."

NORBERT HAUG

"The circuit is more difficult than it looks. We concentrated on race set up and found a reasonable baseline."

David Coulthard: Chassis 06
Kimi Raikkonen: Chassis 07
T-car (Kimi): Chassis 09
Spare: Chassis 03

-mclaren-