Saturday: Hamilton aims for big points, Button for the victory

Jenson Button: 8th and 3rd [8th on the grid]:

This has been a good qualifying session – my two laps in Q3 seemed good. We have improved the car a lot since yesterday, when we tried setups with low downforce to be able to overtake. We went back today, and I am much more satisfied with my car. It’s disappointing to start a bit further back due to my gearbox change penalty. Overtaking has never been easy here – even with the introduction of DRS and, it was a surprise to see the DRS zone shortened this year. But I love racing here. And as everyone’s strategy could be uncertain tomorrow – as there has been a lot of graining – things could be a bit unpredictable. The championship is still far for me, I know that, but I would love to do well here in front of the Japanese crowd; I will do everything to win.

Lewis Hamilton – 13th and 9th:

« Today’s qualifying session was one of the most disappointing of the year for me. To be honest, I went in the wrong direction with my setup and ended up with too much understeer. Before qualifying, the car had been very good all weekend, but I couldn’t get it to turn this afternoon, so I couldn’t extract the maximum. Jenson showed that the car is good – he did a good job today – and our pace on long stints wasn’t bad yesterday either. Also, you never know what might happen tomorrow during the race. It’s going to be tough, but I’ll push hard with the setup I have, and hopefully through tire management I can overtake the cars ahead of me. I’ll try to score as many points as possible tomorrow. »

The positions on the grid are provisional and may change depending on the penalties applied following the qualifying session.