Sunday: Button offers a new record to McLaren, Hamilton retires
By finishing the race in 4th place, Jenson Button enabled the McLaren team to achieve a 56th consecutive points finish, breaking the previous record of 55 held by Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, expressed disappointment with his retirement but the 2008 world champion intends to try to win one or even both of the remaining races.
Jenson Button – 4th:
« Congratulations to Kimi [Räikkönen] – he is not a very talkative man, but he does everything for the race. He deserves this victory today.
For me, it was quite a fun race. I had some great battles on track – with Mark [Webber], Sebastian [Vettel], and Pastor [Maldonado] – and they were really enjoyable. But, unfortunately, I didn’t have the pace to get involved in the fight with the leaders today.
The car behaved differently compared to Friday – I couldn’t find the grip, which was surprising. And, in the end, I couldn’t keep Sebastian behind – he had new soft tires, so it was impossible to have the same traction with my old mediums as he had with his new softs.
Lewis’s retirement means we’re losing even more points to Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship. It was really unfortunate, but we have two races to make up for it.
Lewis Hamilton – Retirement [Fuel Pressure]:
« I’m drained; I had a great pace all weekend and felt we could have won today. I had a fuel pressure issue – it was very sudden, I went into the corner, and the car stopped.
The only mistake of the entire weekend was a moment in the second lap, where my brakes were not fully up to temperature and I locked my wheels at turn eight. After that, everything was going well. The car was a pleasure to drive – I was cruising and easily pulling away when I had my problem.
Nevertheless, we will have other opportunities in Austin and Sao Paulo. I hope that we can be at the forefront again – I would love to secure one or two more victories for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team before the end of the season.
