Saturday: Hamilton dethroned, Button disappointed at McLaren
Although he achieved pole position, Lewis Hamilton was unable to bring his MP4-27 home and was disqualified by the stewards. The 2008 world champion will therefore start in last position, while Jenson Button hopes to understand, before the race, why he was not able to clear the Q2 hurdle.
Jenson Button – 8th and 10th [after Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification]:
I expected to do something in qualifying, so I don’t really understand what went wrong. The car is fast, as Lewis proved. We were quicker on Friday with the soft tires, and I thought we would be reasonably competitive on Saturday as well, but that wasn’t the case, and we don’t really know why. I was just struggling with a very different balance compared to Friday.
I had oversteer throughout the qualifying and then, on my last stint, when we actually added more front wing, I had understeer!
It’s not the best day when you qualify eleventh [editor’s note: 10th after Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification] but I hope we can find out what happened with the car’s balance by tomorrow’s race.
Lewis Hamilton – 16th and 24th [in Pole Position before his relegation]:
« It’s such a disappointment. Today’s qualifying session was one of the best I’ve ever competed in, the car was simply very smooth, it was fantastic. The team did a fantastic job bringing updates here, so I want to say a big thank you to all the men and women at the McLaren Technology Center who worked day and night to have all the components ready for this weekend.
But during my deceleration lap, my engineers asked me to stop on the track, and I didn’t know why. Later, learning that I was disqualified from the qualifying rounds was obviously extremely disappointing.
But, from now on, I look towards the race, and I think it’s clear that it will be incredibly difficult for us. That said, as always, I won’t give up and I’ll give it everything I have. It would mean so much to me to get a good result here, in Spain: it’s such a pleasure to come here, and the support I receive is incredible.
Martin Whitmarsh, Team Director:
« You will not be surprised to hear me say that today has been very disappointing for everyone at McLaren.
But, to start with what I take as positive, both on Saturday and Friday, our car was both fast and stable on this test circuit, and Jenson was extremely fast yesterday and Lewis was extremely fast today.
But, regarding the qualifications, by their own admission, Jenson and his engineers have not really succeeded in finding the right compromise in terms of settings and tire optimization, resulting in an eleventh place [editor’s note: tenth after Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification]. In contrast, Lewis performed superbly in Q3, continuing his streak of brilliant qualifying laps.
However, he was unable to complete his in-lap to the pits and we accept that the stewards do not agree with our interpretation of the case of force majeure: we do not contest their decision to penalize him.
Consequently, our goal is to maximize the points we can score in the race. Rest assured that both Jenson and Lewis will approach the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix with their usual fighting spirit.
