Friday: McLaren in Form, Hamilton Aiming for Pole Position
The McLaren drivers had little track time during the first practice session today - 6 laps for Lewis Hamilton and only one for Jenson Button, his installation lap. In the second session, things picked up for the grays, with them recording the two fastest times, Button finishing a tenth behind Hamilton. But what is astonishing is the gap with their rivals, with Vettel in 3rd almost two seconds behind. And even though things shouldn't stay the same tomorrow, Lewis Hamilton is optimistic and hopes to secure pole position to break his bad streak.
Lewis Hamilton – 7th and 1st
Today, the lap times don’t give us real information on pace and settings, especially since we’ve heard that the weather is going to be better for the next two days. But even if it rains on Sunday, I think we are in a good position – which is positive. It would be nice to start on pole tomorrow here: it’s difficult to analyze today’s times – a lap on slicks was impossible even at the end – but I think we are fast, the car is good, and Jenson showed in the last race that we could be very competitive. So I have no doubt about our ability to compete with the Red Bull during the qualifying session. I think we will have much better sensations tomorrow.
Jenson Button – 24th and 2nd
« Our single-seater was fast in today’s weather conditions – but it’s hard to know what it will be like on a dry track. I hope it will be the same: it would be nice to have the same gap with the cars behind, but that seems unlikely. We didn’t learn much today – the humidity was so high that the track never dried out. The track seemed like it could be dry at the end, but there was no grip with the dry tires because you couldn’t get them up to temperature. In the last races, we have been very strong in qualifying. I would love to qualify well here, and I will do everything I can, but the third practice session will also be very important because no one knows how the cars behave with a lot of fuel and tires meant for dry conditions. There will be a lot to understand. »
