|
 Kimi Räikkönen (Team
McLaren Mercedes) was second fastest, and best placed Michelin driver,
on the opening day of the German Grand Prix meeting.
The Finn lapped in
1m 15.045s, fractionally faster than last season’s pole position time
and just 0.044s shy of world championship leader Michael Schumacher.
The
leading teams and drivers proved to be closely matched and less than
three quarters of a second separated the top nine. Last year’s winner
Juan Pablo Montoya (BMW WilliamsF1 Team/Michelin) was third, ahead of
Jenson Button (BAR-Honda/Michelin, fourth), Antonio Pizzonia (BMW
WilliamsF1 Team/Michelin, fifth), Anthony Davidson (BAR-Honda/Michelin,
sixth), Takuma Sato (BAR-Honda/Michelin, seventh) and Fernando Alonso
(Renault/Michelin, eighth).
• This morning’s first free practice session had to be red-flagged for
safety reasons. Jordan driver Timo Glock lost his front wing, which
subsequently broke up and deposited jagged carbon shards all over the
track.
• Standing in for injured BMW WilliamsF1 Team driver Ralf Schumacher,
Antonio Pizzonia is preparing for his maiden grand prix with the BMW
WilliamsF1 Team, and his first since he drove for Jaguar in the 2003
British GP at Silverstone.
• Anthony Davidson (BAR-Honda/Michelin) set fastest time in this
morning’s first practice, despite being forced to stop before the end
of the session when fourth gear stripped.
Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin Motorsport Director:
“This is a difficult race to call. The track was very abrasive first
thing this morning and that might be the case again tomorrow, because
the prospects of rain are rated at more than 90 per cent and the surface
is consequently likely to be given a thorough cleansing overnight. It is
much harder to predict how a track might evolve when the weather is
unstable, so our six partner teams will need to bear the forecast in
mind when analysing their data.
So far, however, things
have gone very smoothly for us: Times are very close at the front of the
field and several of our partner teams look set to have a good weekend,
including McLaren, which has maintained the upturn in form it showed at
Silverstone. All three of Michelin’s dry-weather compounds have worked
well in the hot, punishing conditions. As usual, they have been fast and
consistent in equal measure and we have no concerns about durability.” |
