Malaysia: Roasting in Sepang Free Practice

By Karl King
March 17 2006

McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya ended Friday's free practice sessions with Montoya's best placing fourth in Free Practice 1, and Kimi's best in 5th during Free Practice 2.

"I am happy with the set up of the car and we managed to complete our programme today despite the small problem this morning with the data logging, where the team decided to cancel my run, whilst there was nothing wrong with the car," Raikkonen said "The Michelin tyres are working well and I think we look strong compared to our main rivals but we will have to see what happens tomorrow."

Montoya added, "I am pretty happy with the car this weekend. This morning we completed one run to see how the car felt and this was pretty good. This afternoon we concentrated on the race set up. There is still a little bit of work to do tomorrow with understanding the car a little better, but the whole package has improved from last weekend. Despite stalling at the end of the grid in the second session and a spin later on we managed to complete our programme and we will see if we have done enough in qualifying tomorrow."

Team chief Ron Dennis commented, "A relatively uneventful first day of practice and the team now looks forward to tomorrow's qualifying session."

Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug finished, "A normal Friday practice session where we completed out planned programme and made good progress with the set up of the cars for the weekend."