US GP: McLaren Saturday qualifying notes

West McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen will start tomorrow's penultimate round of the 2003 FIA Formula One World Championship at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from pole position. It's Kimi's second Formula One pole position -- the first being at the Nürburgring in June. Team mate David Coulthard will start from eighth after setting a time of 1:12.297. Kimi's time was 1:11.670.

Kimi Raikkonen:

"I'm obviously very pleased for the whole team that we managed to get pole position today. It's quite an important one and the fact that my two Championship contenders are a bit further down can only be good for the battle. I think the session was exciting to watch for the fans around the world, and we want this race to be the same. We haven't done as much running as we would have liked but nevertheless I felt very comfortable in the car during my qualifying lap. I'm looking forward to the action tomorrow and believe we can put in a strong performance, but it's a long race and anything can happen. At least we are starting from the best spot!"

David Coulthard:

"I made a slight mistake when I ran a bit wide at turn four which was caused by a small amount of understeer. At turn eight I experienced some oversteer, but that didn't cost me too much time. Even from the fourth row of the grid everything is possible, and I look forward to tomorrow's race. Congratulations to Kimi on his great lap. Let's hope that it stays like this in the race."

Ron Dennis:

"Taking into consideration the limited amount of running that we had as a result of the damp conditions this morning our qualifying went well. Hopefully our race strategy will compliment the excellent pole position achieved by Kimi and also assist David in securing a good result."

Norbert Haug:

"A super job from Kimi in the qualifying session, which was exciting until the very last moment and a great effort from our team. We definitely expect a thrilling race."

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

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