Saturday: McLaren locks out the front row at Monza

Lewis Hamilton – 1st and Pole Position:

« It’s a fabulous day for the whole team: they have done a fantastic job to get our car in this position, so I want to give them enormous thanks. The entire McLaren team deserves this result.

It promises to be a fast and challenging race tomorrow. Jenson and the Ferraris are very fast, but we have a good car and good settings, so we are in the best position to score the maximum points tomorrow.

It’s a magnificent circuit: it’s so fast that it commands respect. Monza also has such a history, and I would like to be part of that story. For now, that said, I’m just aiming to have a solid and consistent race for tomorrow because we need to score big points.

Finally, I would like to send my best thoughts and congratulate my friend Alex Zanardi. He is not only one of the most courageous men I know but also one of the nicest, and his gold medals at the Paralympic Games in recent days are an incredible source of inspiration.

Jenson Button – 5th and 2nd:

« It was really a good day for us. Congratulations to Lewis and the whole team: they did a fabulous job putting us in this position and we will need to build on this tomorrow. Fortunately, we are in the best possible position: the last races really showed the strengths of our car.

We did not consider helping each other [with drafting] like others have done: it is something difficult to do and if you don’t manage it, it can cost you dearly elsewhere on the circuit.

I don’t think tomorrow’s race will be decided solely at the start: obviously, we want to do well in the first corner, but if you try to plan something too bold, sometimes it doesn’t work. There hasn’t been a crash at the front for a few years here, so Lewis and I will just focus on getting out of the first corner ahead of the other drivers.