British GP: Race notes - McLaren

11/06/2006

Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya finished today's British Grand Prix at Silverstone in third and sixth positions respectively. Both were on two-stop strategies which saw Kimi coming in on laps 19 (8.6 seconds) and 42 (8.0 seconds) and Juan Pablo on laps 20 (10.2 seconds) and 45 (6.6 seconds). Kimi improves to third position in the Drivers' Championship with 33 points whilst Juan Pablo remains fifth with 26 points. Team McLaren Mercedes is third in the Constructors' rankings with 59 points.

Kimi Raikkonen: "I made a good start off the line and was able to maintain my second place. However I was not fast enough on the straights to pass Alonso. After the Safety Car came back in I could close the gap a bit, but that was it really. I suffered from oversteer towards the end of the race which allowed Fisichella to close up. However I wasn't too worried as I knew it would be almost impossible for him to actually overtake. We were not as quick as Alonso and Schumacher and third place was the maximum possible, but I think the good news is that this weekend has shown we are moving in the right direction and are getting more and more competitive."

Juan Pablo Montoya: "A big shame that Villeneuve lost control and hit the side of my car as we were coming into the first corner at the start, as our car and strategy would have seen us have a much stronger race. The impact created a big hole in the sidepod and consequently I struggled a bit with the balance throughout the race. Apart from that the race was relatively quiet as there was not much I could do. I was able to conserve my engine which is positive coming into Canada where we aim to continue our progress."

Ron Dennis: "As we have shown both in Monaco and here at Silverstone we have closed some of the gap to our principal competitor Renault and our efforts to win will continue at the Paul Ricard test this coming week. Kimi and Juan Pablo's post race comments summarise our weekend well, and the entire team is looking forward to the next race in Canada."

Norbert Haug: "A solid achievement by Kimi, Juan Pablo and the team. The performance was better today than in Barcelona which shows that we are heading in the right direction. We will push further – that's promised."

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