Raikkonen Pleased with Friday Performance

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen was pleased with his performance in Friday's practice for the Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai circuit.

"We did what we meant to do today and the car's performance is good, so I'm pretty satisfied," said the McLaren driver. "Our tyres seemed to be working well, which is crucial. Obviously we had an idea of set-up before we arrived and whilst we did make a few changes we should be in a good shape."

Raikkonen, the winner in Belgium earlier this year, posted the third quickest time of the day as McLaren began their weekend in promising style. The Finn said he was impressed by the $325 million track.

"The circuit is interesting and the first two corners are particularly challenging," he said. "The first corner was a little bit slippery but the more we ran the less of a problem that became. We will see in the race where the real overtaking opportunities are, and I'm already looking forward to it."

Scot David Coulthard finished right behind his teammate in fourth spot, and he too praised the new circuit.

"It was a good day today," said Coulthard. "We completed our tyre evaluation and the pre-planned programme, but as always we shouldn't read too much into the times.

"This is quite a challenging and interesting circuit especially the first section with the tightening of corner one which despite being slow is very technically demanding. You have to be careful with your rear tyres here because you generate a lot of mechanical grip coming out of the slow corners.

"All in all it's an impressive facility and I'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend."