Sunday: Failing a victory, McLaren scores big points

Jenson Button – 4th:

« Fourth place is not a bad result – especially since I started from 8th place on the grid. I managed to be third during the first stint, but in hindsight, it was probably a mistake to make that first stop so early. Kamui and I were stuck behind a Toro Rosso, which cost us time compared to Felipe. He went out with a new set of tires, which makes a big difference; you can go further and maintain more speed, so he managed to overtake both of us after the first stops.

Towards the end, I was able to attack and I started to catch up with Kamui. But he managed his last set of tires very well – I could get closer to him, but the only way to be in the DRS zone was to brake very, very late in the last chicane, and every time I tried, I locked the wheels and went wide. But this result is not so bad – we are collecting new points – we simply didn’t have the pace to win today.

Lewis Hamilton – 5th:

« Congratulations to Jenson, he drove very well all weekend, and between us, we collected good points for the team today. I was very lucky to stay out of trouble at the start, there were a lot of cars going off, so I focused on bringing the car back without any damage.

I attacked as hard as possible throughout the race. I struggled a bit in the first stint – I had a lot of understeer – but after a while, the car started to turn well again. From that moment, it was much better, and I was able to attack; but it was too late for it to impact the result. It wasn’t a weekend for me. With better qualifying, we can achieve better results – and that will be our goal for South Korea next week. I’m looking forward to it.