Saturday: Button faster than Hamilton at McLaren

Jenson Button – 2nd and 3rd

« Q2 was a bit hard on my nerves, but enjoyable in the end because I hadn’t made it out of Q2 here in Brazil since 2005! So, as I said, it was satisfying to be in the top 10. In Q3, the car performed well too: the balance was good, and I think the car was as good as we had hoped. My flying lap was very scrappy. I was very aggressive on the throttle because you need to be fast here. That’s not normally my style, but it was really fast, and, in fact, I crossed the line thinking I would be higher up on the grid than I actually was. But that’s because the two guys in front of me (Vettel and Webber) did a good job too. If it rains tomorrow, there will definitely be streams, which could make things very difficult. However, this circuit lends itself to good overtaking: over the years, there have been some nice maneuvers in turns 1 and 4, for instance. So, I think everything is in place for Formula 1 to put on a fantastic show tomorrow. »

Lewis Hamilton – 4th and 4th

« Jenson was very fast today. I finished two-tenths behind him, so I could clearly have been faster, but the fact is I made no mistakes in my fast lap, I just wasn’t quick enough today. It’s naturally a bit disappointing for me. Jenson’s pace is encouraging for the team. We have reasons to be optimistic for tomorrow: we’re both on the second row, and we can achieve great things from there. I don’t think we’re at our best in terms of pace in the rain, but fortunately, we’ll be there if it rains. Whatever happens, it’s going to be a long and challenging race. If the weather is wet or changing, as expected, it will likely be very interesting. Interlagos is a place that inspires you as a racing driver: it’s Ayrton Senna’s home, and Brazilian fans are incredibly passionate. I started fourth a few times here (in 2008 and 2010), so I hope it’s a number that will bring me luck. »

Martin Whitmarsh, team principal

Maybe we didn’t get the best out of our soft tires in Q3, it might be a tire pressure issue, even though we’re not sure. But we’ve placed both our cars on the second row, which is a good result. Jenson put in a particularly impressive lap to get that third place – his best qualifying at Interlagos. Lewis also produced a very good lap, just two-tenths behind Jenson. He tried a two-lap qualifying strategy: a fast out-lap followed by a very fast lap to make the most of the soft tires, but it didn’t seem to bring any benefit compared to Jenson’s single lap approach. We are looking forward to tomorrow, it might rain and if it does, the race will certainly be unpredictable. In fact, we’ve set up both our cars with the possibility of a wet race in mind. But, rain or shine, both Jenson and Lewis are eager to bring McLaren its seventh victory of the season, and we are confident in the competitiveness of their cars.