Saturday: McLaren still has victory as the objective

Lewis Hamilton – 1st and 2nd [7th on the grid]:

« Huge congratulations to Nico [Rosberg] today. We first met in 1997 and were teammates in 2000 [in karting]. We have been good friends ever since. When we were teammates, we both dreamed of qualifying first and second in Formula 1, and it’s crazy that we did that today.

Regarding the race, we have a good car, but I’ll have to work my way through the pack tomorrow. Nevertheless, as long as I make progress in the pack, I’ll be happy. I’ve set up my car to be strong in the race. So, although Jenson and I are a bit behind what we would have wished for, and we still have some work to do, we can still make it.

There are good drivers ahead of us on the grid, but we are strong in terms of race pace. It’s a circuit where overtaking is possible, and we also have DRS, so I’m really excited about tomorrow’s race.

Jenson Button – 2nd and 6th [5th on the grid]:

« In Q1, we went out with the softest tires and set a timed lap while most of the other teams didn’t. In Q2, I felt too much understeer, so we made some adjustments for Q3. However, I could feel the temperature drop at the end of the session: I think we just went out a little too late.

Of course, it’s a bit disappointing, but our race pace seems very good. Getting the tires up to temperature will be tricky if it’s cold tomorrow, but that’s not unusual for me. However, that’s how things are, and I hope we can have a good race from fifth place on the grid. Our goal will be victory. It won’t be easy, we need to be as fast or faster than the cars that will be ahead of us tomorrow. The intruder is Kamui [Kobayashi] who seems to have a very good car on long stints.