McLaren concludes Silverstone test

Team McLaren Mercedes concluded a three day test programme this afternoon at the Silverstone circuit in the UK. Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya were on track for the team. The morning saw the circuit closed on nine occasions, with two more red flags during the afternoon, equating about 30% of the track time available.

Kimi covered 483km, taking his total distance for the week to 673km. His fastest time of 1m18.978, which was set before lunch, saw Kimi end the day in second position on the timesheets.

Juan Pablo put in over 205km as he completed 40 laps, and his time of 1m19.676 was sixth quickest overall.

The running continued the week's work schedule, which was focused on the Michelin tyre selection process for the Spanish and British Grands Prix, the Mercedes-Benz V8 and aerodynamic development programme and general set-up.

Gary Paffett was also in attendance, to conduct a shakedown of an MP4-20 that is scheduled to be used at Goodwood later in the year.

Kimi Raikkonen "We have had some productive feedback over the last two days at Silverstone, with good information on set-ups and Michelins to take into the British Grand Prix in June. As the last test before the Spanish race, we have also been focusing on completing the selection process for Barcelona with Michelin."

Juan Pablo Montoya "It has been good to test at Silverstone before the race here, as it means we have positive data to use going into the weekend, but there have been a lot of red flags that really do interrupt the programme. It has been really noticeable here how much faster you are through the corners now we have V8 engines, Copse, for example, is really fast and you don't really lift."