July 11, 2004

MP4-19B 02: David MP4-19B 01: Kimi

The start : David had qualified third but at the start he lost two places and came round fifth at the end of the opening lap. Meanwhile Kimi improved from ninth to seventh.

The race : Kimi came in for the first of his three planned pit stops on lap 11 (6.9sec) and resumed the race in 13th position. David came in one lap later (7.8sec) and resumed in ninth place. On lap 20 David was fifth with Kimi in seventh position.

On lap 28 Kimi came in for his second stop (8.5sec) and accelerated back into the race in tenth place. David's second pit stop followed one lap later (8.8sec) and he, in turn, resumed in eighth position. On lap 33 the two Team McLaren Mercedes cars were holding sixth and seventh positions.

On laps 47 and 48 respectively, Kimi (9.3sec) and David (8.4sec) came in for their final stops after which, lap by lap, they gradually closed in towards the three-car group battling for third position. During that period Kimi set the third fastest race lap in 1min15.791sec. After 70 laps David came home in sixth position 0.710sec ahead of his team-mate. The gap between Rubens Barrichello in third place and Kimi in seventh place was less than five seconds.

David Coulthard: "At the start I lost two positions to be fifth after the first corner. This was a shame as the race showed that both Kimi and I were able to have the same speed as the three cars ahead of me who were fighting for third. I lost some grip during the middle of the race and had a few problems with traffic. However an encouraging and reliable race debut for the 19B and I'm looking forward to my home grand prix at Silverstone next weekend and the rest of the season."

Kimi Räikkönen: "It's always difficult starting from ninth, and I think if I had not messed up in qualifying yesterday we would have done much better. I made a good start and gained two places but it was not enough. The speed of the 19B is good, and I'm confident for the rest of the season particularly as we have further developments coming."

Ron Dennis, Team Principal: "It might not be apparent from our finishing positions but the MP4-19B is definitely a significant step in the right direction. We don't know why David lost two positions at the start, but that definitely penalised his race and allowed the leaders to get away. There will be continuous development on the 19B for the rest of the season, and we should be able to improve further for McLaren's home race next weekend."

Norbert Haug, Vice-President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: "We had the speed for third place today but David lost two positions at the start whilst Kimi gained two. The competition between the Michelin teams has increased which can be seen from today's laptimes. The race's laptimes also showed that we have improved our performance, and we are pleased that both MP4-19Bs ran reliably during their race debut. We will now continue to further improve our package."