Sunday: Big Disappointment for McLaren in Bahrain
The McLaren team arrived at the top of both championships in Bahrain and left the Kingdom having lost its two leader positions. Lewis Hamilton encountered two problems during his pit stops, losing significantly, but he still finished in 8th place. Jenson Button was set to perform well in the standings before an exhaust problem, a puncture, and a differential issue forced him to retire.
Lewis Hamilton – 8th
There are good times and bad times in motorsport. I think today was just one of those days. We should have been fighting in the top 4 today, but it didn’t work out that way in the end. The delays in the pits played a significant part in that, of course. For the driver sitting in the car, it’s always frustrating because you’re waiting and there’s nothing you can do to help.
We lost a bit of our momentum today – but, on the positive side, we were able to score four points for the championship and every point scored is important in a season as tight as this one.
Now, we will tackle the European season, and it is clear that we have two things to do: work to improve our pace and improve our stops.
Jenson Button – 18th
I didn’t have very good balance today: I had to deal with a lot of oversteer all afternoon. We were constantly reviewing the front wing throughout the race, actually.
My last stint was very long, and if I hadn’t encountered this problem, I think things would have been very interesting in the final laps. Some drivers pushed hard at the beginning of this stint, but I was careful with my tires. In the last five laps, I started to push hard and caught up with Paul (di Resta) and Nico (Rosberg). But after braking for the last corner (of lap 53), the front right of the car lifted and I realized I had a puncture (on the rear left). So I quickly informed the team by radio and came in.
In the last laps, the car had a really strange sound. I think it was an exhaust problem, then my puncture, and then a differential problem; so I had to retire. It was quite a difficult weekend for the whole team.
