Saturday: Hamilton thrilled with his position, Button disappointed

Lewis Hamilton – 8th and 2nd

I’m extremely happy to be starting from the front row. Seeing other teams make big progress with their cars, and still starting from 2nd place on the grid, is a surprise that I’m thrilled to seize. We struggled with the setup and front wheel lock-ups at the start of practice yesterday, so I approached qualifying just thinking about securing a good result to start as high as possible.

So, as I said, securing this second place is welcome. However, it will be difficult to preserve the tires in the high heat expected for the race, so we will work tonight to analyze and understand what we did during the last race to ensure that my tires last as long as possible tomorrow.

Overtaking will be very difficult, as always here, but degradation will be a big problem for everyone, I think. I will simply try to score as many points as possible. If I finish in my starting position – second – it would allow me to consolidate my lead. Achieving more than that – a victory in other words – would obviously be a bonus.

Jenson Button – 1st and 9th

The team worked really hard last night to improve the issues encountered with the front wheel lock-ups during Friday’s practice – and this morning, I felt that the car had improved a lot, which was encouraging.

However, my car was very different with new tires at the end of Q3 compared to the rest of the day. On my last lap in Q3, the balance felt very different – I had too much understeer – and, every time I braked, I locked the front. I don’t know if the track changed, but I couldn’t avoid locking the front.

So it’s disappointing to be starting only 9th, especially because previous races have shown that it’s difficult to overtake here. The key, then, will be to have a good strategy.