Zoom Saint Kovalainen on day one at Silverstone

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 Grand Prix, in first and third positions respectively.

Kovalainen completed 35 laps and set a best time of 1:19.989 whilst Hamilton completed 31 laps and ended up with a 1:20.543. In the morning session, Kovalainen was second fastest with 1:19.587 whilst Hamilton was third.

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."

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 (Club). Into the afternoon, the car felt increasingly consistent, and I feel we’ve got a good benchmark for the weekend ahead."

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."

E.A. © CAPSIS International