McLaren pair warming up well
McLaren boss Ron Dennis yesterday demanded one-two finishes this season if his team are to become world champions – and Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen are threatening that at this weekend’s German Grand Prix.
The McLaren duo were comfortably clear of the field in the third practice session at Hockenheim ahead of qualifying today, with championship leader Fernando Alonso a remarkable eight-tenths of a second off the pace.
For the third-successive session, and with his Mercedes engine holding firm after the failures in practice at the recent French and British Grands Prix, Raikkonen was again a class act.
The Finn, who currently trails Renault’s Alonso by 26 points in the drivers’ standings, clocked one minute 15.684 seconds for the 4.574-kilometre circuit.
This time he had team-mate Montoya for company, with the Colombian just seven-hundredths down as he chased back-to-back victories following his success at Silverstone.
Spaniard Alonso will need to step it up if he is not to find himself behind an all-McLaren front row as he was timed at 1:16.477.
Red Bull Racing’s Christian Klien was a fine fourth, followed by Sauber’s Felipe Massa and then David Coulthard in the other Red Bull as the team suggested they might just have a say in this weekend’s race.
Jenson Button was down in 11th for BAR, while the Ferraris of Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher were 14th and 15th, just under two seconds off Raikkonen’s pace.
Barrichello even suffered the ignominy of taking a tour across the gravel and grass at one point in the 45-minute run as he ran wide at turn 11.
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