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Formula 1 News - February 2005
McLaren

15 February: Testing Report - Barcelona - Day One

Location: Circuit de Catalunya, Spain
Drivers: Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya
Weather: Sunny, clear skies, slight breeze.
Air temperature: approx. 22 degrees Celsius
Track temperature: approx. 25 degrees Celsius
Laps run: Kimi Raikkonen 83 laps, Juan Pablo Montoya 71 laps
Kilometres covered: 728km
Best lap time of the day: Fernando Alonso, Renault, 1m14.990s
Best lap time of West McLaren Mercedes� drivers: Kimi Raikkonen, 1m15.229s
Juan Pablo Montoya, 1m15.400s
Duration of test: Three days

Team McLaren Mercedes has moved its Winter testing programme to the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona this week, for a three day programme which ends on Thursday. Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya were both present at the circuit today.

Kimi was involved in an accident this afternoon with approximately half an hour left of his final phase of a planned Grand Prix simulation. He was bruised but unhurt in the accident, but the car was severely damaged. The initial view is that a foreign body got jammed between the brake caliper and the inside of a wheel rim and machined a groove into the rim which caused an immediate failure. It was a heavy impact but Kimi has been checked and apart from a bruised thumb he is OK. However as a precaution he will not be testing tomorrow.

The team is aiming to repair Kimi's MP4-20 for tomorrow, so that Pedro de la Rosa can test alongside Juan Pablo.

This week it is the race team rather than the test team who are present at the circuit carrying out race weekend operations. All the equipment involved over a race weekend has been installed at the track, and the test will allow for any final checks to be carried out and for new personnel to become familiar with race weekend operations.

Kimi Raikkonen "I don't really know what happened. It was quite a big impact and I'm a bit shaken up and have hurt my thumb. I'm not going to be testing tomorrow but hopefully Pedro will be able to complete the programme with the repaired car."

Juan Pablo Montoya "I'm pleased that Kimi is OK as it was quite a big impact. We completed most of the programme today. I had a small problem with a dragging clutch in the morning which hindered my running a bit, but at the end of the day that is what testing is all about - find the problems and solve them. We will continue the programme tomorrow and take it from there."

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Vodafone McLaren Mercedes unveiled in Valencia (15/12/2007)
McLaren MP4-22 Technical Specifications (15/12/2007)
McLaren MP4-22 Design Philosophy (15/12/2007)
Team Personnel Q & A's (15/12/2007)
Lewis Hamilton to partner Fernando Alonso in 2007 (24/11/2006)
de la Rosa replaces Montoya (11/07/2006)
Valencia Test Notes (15/02/2006)
Valencia Test Notes (14/02/2006)
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McLaren unveil new livery for 2006 (10/02/2006)

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