Mercedes Benz

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

Silverstone, Jul 04, 2008

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).

Lewis (MP4-23 02)
Heikki (MP4-23 05)

Practice Session One:

Lewis:
10:02: out/in
10:37: 5 laps, best 1:19.916
11:19: 7 laps, best 1:19.623 (3rd)

Heikki:
10:03: out/in
10:35: 7 laps, best 1:19.682
11:22: 7 laps, best 1:19.587 (2nd)

Practice Session Two:

Lewis:
14:03: 6 laps, best 1:21.282
14:24: 11 laps, best 1:21.028
14:51: 11 laps, best 1:21.074
15:21: 3 laps, best 1:20.543 (3rd)

Heikki:
14.02: 6 laps, best 1:21.387
14.24: 7 laps, best 1:20.353
14:49: 10 laps, best 1:19.989 (1st)
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.”



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