Friday March 29th, 2002
McLaren boss Ron Dennis was in a forgiving mood after seeing his young driver Kimi Raikkonen making what the Briton said was his first mistake since he joined the team.
Raikkonen spun in today's first free practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix, stalling his McLaren halfway through the session at the Descida do Sol turn.
"We're very much focusing on optimising the race performance," Dennis said. "We're already considering our probable strategy and the times at the moment are immaterial. It's Kimi's first mistake since he joined the team so I'm not too annoyed about it."
Teammate David Coulthard, seeking his first points of the season, also spun but was able to continue. While the Scot extricated his car from what looked like a vivid bed of trackside flowers and continued, Raikkonen completed only four laps and was 19th fastest. Coulthard was 11th quickest.
Published at 16:20:26 GMT