Thursday: McLaren plans for the unpredictable for the Grand Prix

Jenson Button – 8th and 1st

« The most important thing today was to try to make the longest possible stint with a lot of fuel and on super soft tires, which I think nobody managed. We need to see how these tires perform because their performance will play a considerable role during the race. Still, it was nice to briefly try these tires and see their level of grip. It gives you some information to exploit before Saturday, even if we will still need to test this compound before qualifying. I definitely felt that the car improved between FP1 and FP2. We tried something different this afternoon, and I was happier with how the car was responding. There is always room for improvement, but we know which direction we want to take. »

Lewis Hamilton – 4th and 11th

We didn’t learn as much as we might have wanted to today. The weather was good this morning, but it was quite difficult to deal with the car due to the changing conditions we had this afternoon, with the usual traffic here obviously. It’s an incredibly tricky circuit, very technical, so every little piece of information helps you understand where to go with the settings. The fewer runs you do, the harder it becomes to understand tire behavior. Today, neither of us managed to do a long run, so we’ll go into the race with some uncertainties about how the tires will behave. But everyone is in the same boat, so I guess it will be a surprise for all teams. Despite everything, it’s always mega fun to be on the track, driving here is incredible.