June 6, 2006

McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Räikkönen finished the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in third place with his team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya sixth. At the end of 60 laps Kimi finished 18.6sec behind winner Fernando Alonso (Renault). Team McLaren Mercedes are now third in the Constructors' World Championship on 59 points. Kimi holds third place in the Drivers' Championship on 33 points while Juan Pablo is fifth on 26 points. The leader Fernando Alonso now has 74 points.

The start: Kimi qualified third on the grid, Juan Pablo eighth. At the end of the opening lap both retained their places, but the safety car was deployed until the end of lap three after a collision between Ralf Schumacher (Toyota) and Mark Webber (Williams).

The race: When the safety car was withdrawn there was an initial close fight at the front of the field between Alonso, Kimi and Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) occupying the first three places. Juan Pablo had improved to seventh place and thereafter found himself stuck behind Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) whom he shadowed less than a second behind although he could not overtake.

Kimi made his first scheduled refuelling stop at the end of lap 19 in 8.6sec and went back into the race in fourth place. Juan Pablo made his first stop at the end of the following lap (10.2sec) and resumed in tenth place. At the end of the first round of refuelling stops Kimi was running second and Juan Pablo sixth.

On lap 42 Kimi came in for his second stop (8.0sec) and dropped behind Michael Schumacher on his return to the race. Juan Pablo pitted on lap 45 for the second time (6.6sec) and dropped back to eighth, but regained his sixth position on lap 48 when two cars ahead of him came in for their refuelling stops. After 60 laps Kimi and Juan Pablo took the chequered flag in third and sixth positions.

Comments

Kimi Räikkönen : "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, Team Principal: "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, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: "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.”