Saturday: Rain Stronger Than McLaren
The weekend is already tough for the McLaren-Mercedes team. Neither the mood nor the weather was favorable. The reigning world champion, returning to the scene of his victory, experienced a rather chaotic Saturday. 17th during the 3rd free practice session in the rain, the Briton did not do any better during qualifying. He did not […]
The weekend is already tough for the McLaren-Mercedes team. Neither the mood nor the weather was favorable. The reigning world champion, returning to the scene of his victory, experienced a rather chaotic Saturday. 17th during the 3rd free practice session in the rain, the Briton did not do any better during qualifying. He did not manage to qualify for Q2.
His Finnish teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, failed to raise the level of the Silver Arrows. He took 12th position during the Saturday morning session and a very poor 17th place. The McLaren-Mercedes are not expected to be the stars of Interlagos as they were in 2007 or 2008.
Lewis Hamilton – 17th and 17th (18th time):
«Today, it was one of the worst qualifying sessions. Our car was not good at all: both for Heikki and for me. It was a disappointing performance, but we did the best we could. I hope the sun will be out tomorrow, and that we will have a real chance to be in the top 8, but starting from 18th place, it means the weekend is really shot. »
Heikki Kovalainen – 12th and 16th (17th fastest):
These are conditions never experienced for a race weekend. I love driving in wet conditions, but today there was so much aquaplaning that it was impossible to keep the car on the track. This result shows that the car lacks downforce. I hope for different conditions tomorrow.
Martin Whitmarsh – Team Principal:
It’s very disappointing for the team. We focused on tomorrow’s race in dry conditions, so we didn’t provide our drivers with a car that could have enabled them to qualify for Super pole. Obviously, we will do our best for tomorrow’s race.
