Quick Raikkonen Remains Cautious

Finn Kimi Raikkonen remained cautious about his McLaren team's chances at this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix after topping the timesheets in first practice.

Raikkonen, set to be Finland's sole Formula One driver with Mika Salo following Mika Hakkinen into retirement at the end of the year, lapped the longest circuit in the Championship in 1:47.196.

The time, on a cloudy day with morning fog delaying practice by an hour, was well inside last year's pole position mark but the track layout has been amended slightly. The Finn, however, refused to get carried away.

"It's too early to say how we will do this weekend, but we had a productive practice," said Raikkonen at the end of the day. "I lost a bit of time at the end of the first session when my car had a hydraulics problem, but we fixed it during the break.

"The car was working well and I'm pleased with the work we have gone through and am looking forward to qualifying."

Teammate David Coulthard completed a first day McLaren one-two as the second quickest, in 1:47.356, while Ferrari's five times World Champion Michael Schumacher was third on the timesheets in 1:47.403. Coulthard too was cautious despite their strong start.

"There have been Fridays this year when we have been fastest so let's wait and see what happens tomorrow," said the Scot. "We were following a specific programme to evaluate the tyres and gained a lot of useful data."