Saturday: McLaren and Hamilton return to pole position

Lewis Hamilton – 2nd and Pole Position:

Throughout the year, I don’t think my performances in qualifying were too bad; it was only in the last two races that I failed to perform my final stint in Q3. So, today’s result was not entirely unexpected. However, we have been fast as a team and have never stopped making improvements to the car. I am so proud of all the men and women, here on the track or in Woking, who have worked so hard to bring us back to where we wanted to be.

Of course, pole position is only the first step, especially knowing that tomorrow’s race will be long and unpredictable. Pole position is always a great achievement and I am proud to have done it for the team’s 700th Grand Prix.

We have worked to improve our starts and I hope we can convert pole position into leadership tomorrow. The race promises to be tough and it will be hard to beat the two guys starting right behind me, but I hope I can keep first place and control the race responsibly.

I now want to throw all my strength into the race.

Jenson Button – 1st and 3rd:

Congratulations to Lewis, he was very fast all weekend and I couldn’t get close enough to him today.

On my last stint, I think I lost a bit of ground in the last corner: I hit the rev limiter and lost some time, but I feel good in the car. Third place is not where I wanted to start, but we can have a good race from there: there are a lot of long straights on this track, especially after the start. With the headwind on the straight between turns 2 and 3, there could be a lot of action on the first lap: I’m looking forward to it.

Our car is performing well this weekend. As a team, we have done a great job and I am particularly grateful to the guys in the garage who worked extremely hard last night to change my chassis. Thank you, guys!

We will dive a little into the unknown tomorrow as we have not yet run with a full tank of fuel. On the grid, we will have to see how the car behaves with fuel, and then we will have to focus on what we need to do during the race.

We have all the ingredients for a fantastic race. It will be even more encouraging if we keep fighting for poles and victories like this; it would be a good way to end the season and would lay a perfect foundation for 2012.

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Principal:

« Obviously, it’s a very good feeling to be in pole position, especially if it hasn’t been the case for a long time and considering we missed a few we thought we could achieve this year, but it’s not time to celebrate yet.

Lewis and Jenson both did a great job this afternoon, and we are in a reasonably strong position. I also think we have a good balance with the car, although there is still a small unknown regarding how the tires will hold up.

I think it will be an intriguing race with some interesting tire decisions and some exciting strategies.