2008 SANTANDER BRITISH GRAND PRIX FREE PRACTICE
Silverstone, Friday 4th July 2008
Lewis Hamilton MP4-23 02
Heikki Kovalainen MP4-23 05
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes drivers Heikki Kovalainen and
Lewis Hamilton finished Friday’s second Free Practice
for the Santander British Grand Prix in Silverstone, the first
of the team’s two consecutive home Grands Prix, in first
and third positions respectively. Heikki did 35 laps and set
a best time of 1m19.989 whilst Lewis completed 31 laps and
ended up with a 1m20.543. In the morning session, Heikki was
second fastest with 1m19.587 (15 laps) whilst Lewis was third
with 1m19.623 (13 laps).
Practice Session One:
Lewis Heikki:
10.02: out / in 10.03: out / in
10.37: 5 laps, best 1:19.916 10.35: 7 laps, best 1:19.682
11.19: 7 laps, best 1:19.623 (3rd) 11.22: 7 laps, best 1:19.587
(2nd)
Practice Session Two:
Lewis: Heikki:
14.03: 6 laps, best 1:21.282 14.02: 6 laps, best 1:21.387
14.24: 11 laps, best 1:21.028 14.24: 7 laps, best 1:20.353
14.51: 11 laps, best 1:21.074 14.49: 10 laps, best 1:19.989
(1st)
15.21: 3 laps, best 1:20.543 (3rd) 15.16: 12 laps, best 1:20.575
LEWIS HAMILTON
"It was good to see so many fans at the circuit so early
this morning! Although we’d only tested here last week,
the track felt quite different today. The car’s balance
felt very good despite my having a little grassy moment at
Turn Eight. Into the afternoon, the car felt increasingly
consistent, and I feel we’ve got a good benchmark for
the weekend ahead."
HEIKKI KOVALAINEN
"We seemed to find a nice balance almost immediately
and waited for the track to come to us throughout both sessions.
The trick here is to balance the set-up between the high-
and slow-speed corners and I feel that we’re getting
closer to achieving that. We shouldn’t get carried away
with being fastest on Friday afternoon, but we’ve got
a good basis for Sunday."
RON DENNIS
"The British Grand Prix is the home race for all the
hard-working people at Woking and Brixworth and, as such,
it is a particularly important event for everybody at Vodafone
McLaren Mercedes. Today’s practice performances look
encouraging and neither driver reported any major problems
- but we remain mindful that there is still much work to complete
and are fully aware of the threat of wet weather for the remainder
of the weekend."
NORBERT HAUG
"A productive first test day with good and consistent
lap times by Heikki and Lewis. However, the weather forecast
for tomorrow and Sunday predicts heavy rain, therefore today’s
findings will be only of limited help."
|
