McLaren team struggling

McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya finished today's second free practice session for the 2006 European Grand Prix in 13th and 17th positions respectively.

Raikkonen set a time of 1:34.536 and completed a total of 13 laps in this afternoon's session whilst Montoya's time of 1:34.968 was 17th fastest as he completed 14 laps.

The morning session saw Raikkonen completing a total of five laps setting the eighth fastest time of 1:34.402 whilst Montoya only completed an installation lap and set no time.

Kimi Raikkonen
"We have completed our program as planned and have a good idea on which Michelin tires we are going to select. The car's balance has not been great today and we have suffered a little from understeer but we are confident that we will find a solution and see further improvement in tomorrow's session."

Juan Pablo Montoya
"We struggled a little bit throughout both sessions with a lack of grip which tended to make the car too understeery, but even so we made progress throughout the session. Otherwise we are comfortable that we will be more competitive tomorrow going into qualifying and the race."

[Note: Kimi Raikkonen has the new spec engine this weekend, as he was due a change, while Montoya still has the older version that he ran at Imola.]

“That’s the way it goes. I think it’s been really fair the way everything has been handled. I think at the moment, it’s the least of my worries, what Kimi gets or doesn’t get, you know. If we were first and second, I would be a little bit pissed off, but we’re 13th and 17th, and with something like that it doesn’t really matter.

“I’m pretty happy with my engine. It worked really well in the last race, and it should work well here. It’s not about whether I’m quicker or not, it’s whether we can beat everybody else. If we beat everybody else, then you have to worry your teammate, but at the moment we need to make sure the car works."

Ron Dennis
"An uneventful Friday practice. The grip levels today were very low making it difficult for both drivers to set-up their cars. Tomorrow should be a different story."

Norbert Haug
"We focused on running our planned program and our times in race trim look not too bad." Source McLaren Mercedes