Fernando Alonso escapes a penalty
If both McLaren drivers failed in Q1, Fernando Alonso almost received a penalty for using a tire from Jenson Button. The FIA only issued a reprimand to McLaren for its mistake.
The British Grand Prix has rarely been as complicated for McLaren. Both drivers could do no better than 17th and 18th, just ahead of the two Manors. As if that weren’t enough, the team was under scrutiny from the FIA for fitting a tire meant for Jenson Button on Fernando Alonso’s car.
The error occurred when the team performed a double pit stop for its two drivers, and one of the tires ended up on the wrong car by mistake. But since there was no performance gain, the FIA decided to simply give the team a slap on the wrist, as they didn’t need an exclusion after such a difficult qualification.
Fernando Alonso had already been hindered by an electronic problem in free practice 3, where he could only complete six laps: « I had a problem at the end of free practice 3. Everything worked again when we restarted the system. This means I arrived in qualifying with very few laps. I started with too little information for the settings and track conditions. In this context, I still managed to get the most out of the car. I don’t think I could have gone faster today. »
As for Jenson Button, he was perplexed about his car’s setup: « I don’t know why, but the Primes suited me much better than the Options this weekend. Normally, you add front wing to balance the car with the Options. But this weekend, we removed some. »
In these conditions, the team’s only ambition is to be able to finish the race with both cars in order to gather data.
From our special correspondent at Silverstone
