Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard finished yesterday’s San Marino Grand Prix at Imola in eighth and 12th positions respectively. David had qualified 11th while Kimi had to start from the back of the grid. Kimi was on a two stop strategy and completed his stops on laps 21 (9.5 seconds) and 41 (10.2 seconds). David had an incident at the start which forced him to come into the pits after the first lap for a new nose cone. The team then changed David’s strategy from a three to a two stop and he came in on laps 19 (9.4 seconds) and 40 (10.5 seconds). David is 8th in the Drivers’ Championship with four points and Kimi is 10th with one point. The Team McLaren Mercedes team is fifth in the Constructors’ rankings with five points.
KIMI RAIKKONEN “I’m pleased to finish my first race of the season and get one point, but obviously we want to be fighting for the lead and not eighth place. I started the race from last, so I had to fight hard to make up some positions. The track is very narrow, so it’s quite difficult to overtake and when you are so far back you inevitably get stuck. I know that the team will continue to work hard on improving our package and making further progress both with pace and reliability.”
DAVID COULTHARD “When you start in the middle of the field you have to take risks coming into the first corner in order to make progress. On this occasion I took too much of a risk and ended up damaging the nose of the car and going off the track. I was able to make it back into the pits where the team replaced the nose and changed me from a three to a two stop strategy in order to try and make up positions. I fought hard but 12th was the best we could do.”
RON DENNIS “The problems we experienced in practice with Kimi and the first corner incident with David effectively meant that we raced from the back of the grid which is an unusual and a not to be repeated experience for the team. However we can take some comfort from our pace mid-race and the reliability of the cars. We aim to introduce further improvements at the Spanish Grand Prix, which should provide us with better grid positions and results.”
NORBERT HAUG “Kimi started from last and David was last after his unscheduled first-lap pitstop to change the nose following his accident at the first corner. So positions eight and 12 were the best we could achieve today. Both drivers were on a two-stop strategy. The entire team will now continue to work in a concentrated way to significantly improve our package with regards to both reliability and performance.”
Pos - Driver - Team - Race - Time
1 Michael Schumacher Scuderia Ferrari 1h26m19.670 2 Jenson Button BAR Honda 1h26m29.372 3 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams BMW 1h26m41.287 4 Fernando Alonso Renault 1h26m43.324 5 Jarno Trulli Renault 1h26m55.886 6 Rubens Barrichello Scuderia Ferrari 1h26m56.353 7 Ralf Schumacher Williams BMW 1h27m15.400 8 Kimi Raikkonen Team McLaren Mercedes 1h26m20.284 9 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber 1h26m21.263 10 Filipe Massa Sauber 1h26m33.852 11 Olivier Panis Toyota 1h26m58.490 12 David Coulthard Team McLaren Mercedes 1h26m.59.350 13 Mark Webber Jaguar Cosworth 1h27.08.421 14 Christian Klien Jaguar Cosworth 1h26m54.894 15 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi Cosworth 1h19m10.315 16 Takuma Sato BAR Honda 1h19m10.315
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