Sunday roundup: McLaren – Hamilton and McLaren are in the game

If Lewis finishes in a promising second place, despite a damaged floor, Jenson Button could have claimed a podium spot without a poor start and a penalty imposed by the stewards following his controversial overtaking of Felipe Massa.

Lewis Hamilton – 2nd

« Second place is a great result. The car was fantastic, really enjoyable to drive, and I was able to take care of my tires during the race. Being able to put pressure on Sebastian [Vettel] so early in the season was very encouraging.

I think we were competitive enough today to contend for the victory. Without a bad start, we could have been in the fight. So, I think we should be happy.

I don’t really know what happened with the floor, but it didn’t bother me too much while driving. After the race, I took a look at it, and it seemed very severely damaged. I was just happy to have been able to bring the car home, I was cautious.

Physically, however, it has been one of the easiest races I have ever had to do. I came here with the feeling of being fitter than ever, so I am looking forward to going to Malaysia, which is probably the toughest race of the year.

I am also eager to see what performance gains we can achieve for the next race. The engineers know where the most progress can be made. I think we can fight for victory at Sepang.

Jenson Button – 6th

I got off to a good start, but I was surprised to see Vitaly [Petrov] – he got a very good launch. Then, I got stuck behind Felipe [Massa] because I had a poor exit from the first corner, and […] because he was so slow and difficult to overtake. He slowed both of us down. I tried to pass him on the outside of turn 11. I was ahead approaching the corner, but he took the inside line and forced me off my trajectory.

After my penalty, I had to make up for the lost time, which was fun but also a bit frustrating. I was just hoping to get the best out of the car today, but at least Lewis did a good job.

We should be happy with our pace. We will have improvements for the next race, but the car is still very young, and there are many changes to make to perfect the whole.

We should be very happy with this weekend, I just would have liked to leave with more points.

Martin Whitmarsh

From the start, Lewis was more or less able to keep in touch with Sebastian, but once the floor of his car was damaged, he was no longer able to keep the leader in sight. Nevertheless, he had a great race in difficult conditions to finish second today.

Jenson did a very good job all afternoon as well, but was hit by bad luck twice: first he got bogged down in the first corner, losing a few places, and after that he received a penalty for his overtake on Massa, even though he felt he was forced off his line by Felipe when he had completed his maneuver. Without that, he would have had the right to champagne on the podium, with Sebastian and Lewis, but I guess that’s motor racing.

Overall, however, when you look at where we were a few weeks ago, you have to admit that leaving Australia with 26 points is a pretty good result.

More importantly, it means that we have a good foundation on which to develop our car and compete for championship honors this season.

Off to Malaysia!