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McLaren-Mercedes drivers
David Coulthard and Kimi Räikkönen outpaced their rivals on the opening
day of practice for the French Grand Prix. At a track where the team has
traditionally performed well and where he won in 2000. David Coulthard
used his Michelin tyres to good effect to post a 1m 14.025s lap, a scant
0.072s faster than his Finnish team-mate.
Ferrari drivers Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello were third and
fourth fastest. The Ferraris were the only non-Michelin cars in the top
11. Behind the McLaren's BMW WilliamsF1 driver Ralf Schumacher was fifth
spearheaded the French company's challenge ahead of sixth placed Jaguar
driver Eddie Irvine, Toyota's Mika Salo seventh, Jaguar's Pedro de la Rosa
eighth, Renault's Jenson Button ninth, Juan Pablo Montoya tenth and Allan
McNish eleventh.
Both Williams drivers have
been off the track during the day and Montoya stopped running early after
incurring chassis damage when he spun through a gravel trap at high speed.
Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin Motorsport Director, responded to various
questions.
The Michelin-shod McLaren's set the fastest two times today and nine of
your cars featured in the top eleven?
"It has been a very productive session. Today our partner teams have
conducted lots of tests with the two kinds of dry-weather tyre we brought
to this race. So far the results are not absolutely consistent, because
the same type of tyre is producing conflicting results for different
teams, but we have acquired a large quantity of data and that has given us
plenty of thinking to do before tomorrow's qualifying session. Generally I
think we have reason to be guardedly optimistic about our prospect s for
tomorrow and Sunday."
What can you tell us about the primary (A) and option (B) tyres you are
using this weekend?
"The primary tyre has been
used before during a race weekend at Silverstone, for example. The option
is a new compound that has produced very promising results during a series
of tests at different circuits. It is likely that both will be use d
during the race on Sunday."
Some people seem to think Michelin runs well at Magny-Cours because it is
your local circuit. Is that fair comment?
"Absolutely not! In fact we don't run that frequently at Magny-Cours
compared to the amount of time we spend at other tracks. Of course it is
nice to be racing close to our Clermont-Ferrand base, but that doesn't
alter the way we approach the weekend at all. This is just a circuit like
any other and we have to work out how best to tackle its characteristics
just as we would anywhere else."
What are the most difficult aspects of Magny-Cours for a tyre
manufacturer? "Some
circuits, such as Monaco and Barcelona, have a certain type of corner that
is common to the whole track and you can produce a tyre accordingly. But
here there is a much greater range of challenges from the tight Adelaide
hairpin to the ultra-fast right-hander at Estoril. Overall, this circuit
places quite a strain on tyres." |
