Saturday: McLaren and Hamilton believe in it
Although they seemed off the pace this morning, McLaren reassured during the qualifications, and Lewis Hamilton managed to position his car behind the two Red Bulls.
Lewis Hamilton – 3rd
I’m excited to be in the fight: we can win from this position. Of course, we will need a bit of luck with strategy and pit stops, but our guys are in great shape. You have to nail everything and absolutely maximize everything to be ahead of the Red Bulls and, hopefully, that can happen tomorrow.
I tried to push a little harder in my last lap, but there’s a fine line between being too greedy and just right, and unfortunately, I locked the wheels in the first corner and lost time there.
The team has done an excellent job, as always. The guys at the factory have worked as hard as ever to ensure the improvements are ready. They are pushed to their limits, but they do it, so I am very grateful for everything they do.
Our race pace has been quite good in the last three races, and we could be fast tomorrow as well: fingers crossed!
Jenson Button – 6th
The sixth position is a bit frustrating because the car was pretty good in Q2 and I didn’t have to push too hard. So I don’t know why that changed in Q3. I experienced a bit of oversteer and didn’t have enough grip at the rear axle, especially in the first two sectors. It’s something I wasn’t expecting.
The car was really good this morning during the tests, but maybe in this heat, the balance didn’t work as well as it did this morning. It was the same with the medium tires: a bit more oversteer than this morning.
Despite everything, I am sure we can change the tire pressure and aerodynamic balance for tomorrow, so we can still have a good race ».
Martin Whitmarsh
During the last three Grand Prix, we had the fastest car in the race, and I hope that will also be the case here. Today, we qualified third and sixth, which is good but not exceptional, but we feel that we are still capable of winning the race tomorrow. Having the right strategy will be a challenge for everyone, but we have in the MP4-26 a great racing car and two great drivers, and although we would have preferred to qualify on the front row, I firmly believe that we will be able to fight for victory tomorrow.
