A normal but hot Friday for McLaren

Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya ended Friday afternoon's free practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang circuit in fifth and 14th positions respectively, with ambient temperatures reaching 37 degrees centigrade and track temperatures of 44 degrees. Kimi completed 16 laps and set a time 1:36.132 whilst Juan Pablo did 16 laps with a best time of 1:37.463.

In the morning Juan Pablo had been fourth fastest with a 1:36.709. Kimi did not set a time in the session due to a data logging problem on his car. The afternoon session finished with Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya setting the sixth and 15th fastest time of the day.

Kimi Raikkonen “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. 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.”

Juan Pablo Montoya “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."

Ron Dennis“A relatively uneventful first day of practice and the team now looks forward to tomorrow's qualifying session.”

Norbert Haug “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.”