Bum steer for McLaren duo

Kimi Raikkonen, who was runner-up here last year, ended today's free practice session fifth fastest, despite suffering problems with his power steering system that lost him valuable track time.

"As a result of the tight corners Monte Carlo is a circuit that requires a car to have greater steering travel," said Dennis. "Unfortunately the modification which we introduced to achieve this caused some seal failures which certainly interrupted both drivers' second practice sessions.

"Alternative components will be manufactured by Saturday which should resolve this small problem. Apart from this, both cars have performed well but of course David [Coulthard] was not able to run in the latter and grippier part of the second session."

Raikkonen said: "A good practice session where we went through most of our planned programme. Like David, I had a problem with the power steering which caused some interruption to the second session. The car seems to suit the tight circuit design here in Monaco, so hopefully we can fight for good positions if everything keeps going well."

Coulthard added: "As we had to do some repairs to our power steering system, we couldn't do as many laps as we would have liked in the second session. Otherwise it looks like our pace is reasonable. It's brilliant to be able to attack the corners, and as this is a real drivers' circuit I enjoy it so much more than many others."