Thursday: Hamilton wants to offer victory to McLaren

Lewis Hamilton – 5th and 2nd:

It’s fantastic here. I love the track, I love the weather. It’s a wonderful place. I enjoy every lap I take, and I have the best view of all Monaco when I’m in the car. I’m very happy to be here.

I am satisfied with the car’s balance and I didn’t make any mistakes, but it’s going to be tight here.

You quickly get used to DRS and KERS, but you only use them fully on the pit straight and above Sainte Dévote, we don’t use them in the slower sections. Maybe I’ll find places to do it for qualifying, but I’ll keep that to myself.

I love driving the car here, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. It’s so exciting, you can’t afford to make mistakes, the car is amazing when you jump from one curb to another, there’s no room for error. I want to win this Grand Prix.

Jenson Button – 6th and 4th:

The first lap is always a shock because it’s so slippery. But once the grip arrives, the car works well and it’s really fun to be here.

(D) Both the DRS and the KERS work here, I had no problem using the DRS but I’m glad we can’t use it in the tunnel. The FIA has definitely made the right decision here. I think we need to see where to use the KERS best.»

I feel better in the car than last year, but there are still things to improve. Our car seems reasonably fast but there is a lot of competition here.

There is much less degradation than we thought. I did a long stint with the super softs and even though there is some degradation, it is reasonable. The same is true with the softs. Nevertheless, it is not easy to decide which strategy will work best for Sunday.

Martin Whitmarsh – Team Principal:

It’s always nice to be on the Côte d’Azur on a sunny day – and you feel even better when you have two competitive cars after the first day of testing.

«I think the whole team did an extremely solid job today: Lewis and Jenson drove very well, stayed out of trouble, and were able to fine-tune their cars throughout both sessions, the engineers and mechanics also worked together, which is undoubtedly the hardest challenge from a technical and logistical standpoint.»

Even though it’s encouraging to see both cars towards the top of the timesheets, we have no illusions; it will be a very tight weekend. It’s clear that Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, and Mercedes GP all look very strong, and this promises a very tight battle for qualifying and an extremely entertaining race on Sunday.