Friday: A wave of optimism sweeps through McLaren
The two McLaren drivers, Sergio Pérez and Jenson Button, are quite satisfied with their car which, according to them, should propel them into the top ten in qualifying. The Briton, slightly adrift with his settings in the morning, managed to reverse the trend throughout the day, while the Mexican was delighted to be back at a circuit he enjoys.
Sergio Perez – 7th and 9th:
« It’s a long circuit with big fast corners and the longest straight of the season. After today’s practice sessions, I feel very optimistic for the weekend. I’m happy with the car’s balance and I can’t wait for tomorrow.
Nevertheless, we had some problems with the car’s balance during today’s session. The first set of medium tires clearly worked better for us than the soft ones, but we didn’t really use it with an optimized car, so I’m not too worried.
However, we absolutely need to analyze the performance of the soft tires this evening to see how we can improve it. The most important thing is to have good tires for the race.
Overall, I think we are in the same position as we have been in the last three or four races. So tomorrow our objective will be to have a strong qualifying session and get into Q3.
Jenson Button – 6th and 10th:
« We tried a number of different setups this morning, but I think we started off on the wrong foot; it doesn’t work particularly well on this type of circuit.
So we returned to more traditional settings for the afternoon, and we developed the car throughout the day. We are now where we need to be despite this morning’s setbacks. In a way, it’s positive because it meant we had already made the most of the car throughout the year.
The tires will be very interesting this weekend. The mediums seem to last an eternity, while the softs do not. There is a very big difference between the two rubber compounds, and I think we will see some very interesting strategies this weekend!
