Raikkonen Not Getting Carried Away

Finland's Kimi Raikkonen remained cautious after setting the quickest time in today's free practice for the British Grand Prix.

The young Finn, overall runner-up last year but little more than an also-ran in an uncompetitive car for the first half of this season, lapped in 1:18.655, a mere 0.005 of a second quicker than Sauber's Italian Giancarlo Fisichella.

Raikkonen, whose team introduced the revised MP4-19B at last weekend's French Grand Prix, was encouraged by his start to the weekend but refused to get carried away.

"We completed our planned programme today and experienced no problems," said the Finn at the end of the day. "I had a positive test here at Silverstone with the 19B a few weeks ago, so I was quite confident that the car would be good.

"Hopefully we can continue to improve it during tomorrow's practice. We were quickest today, but there is nothing to celebrate yet. Saturday and Sunday are the important ones."

Raikkonen's British teammate David Coulthard, twice a winner at Silverstone, was fourth in the second of the McLaren.

"An encouraging start to my home Grand Prix, but it's early days and whilst it's looking good, tomorrow is another day," said Coulthard. "We have learnt a lot and will see what the next couple of days bring.

"MP4-19B is an improvement, and I feel that it should be possible to get on the podium, so that has to be the goal."