Saturday: Kevin Magnussen enables McLaren to reach Q3
On the demanding Monaco circuit, it wasn't experience that paid off but youth. Indeed, it was rookie Kevin Magnussen who managed to reach Q3, something he hadn't achieved since Bahrain. He will therefore start 8th on the grid. On the other hand, Jenson Button failed to escape the Q2 trap and will start 12th.
Kevin Magnussen (No. 20) – 11th and 8th
If he could legitimately consider himself happy to have reached Q3, Kevin Magnussen is not entirely pleased to start 8th on the grid as he thinks he could have done better: « I’m not completely happy to start eighth, but we almost got the best out of what we had available. Maybe the 7th place was possible, by pushing harder. »
Monaco is such a unique circuit, with so little room for error that achieving a perfect lap is almost impossible: It’s always a challenge to put together the perfect lap here and you never feel like you’ve done it! It’s a street circuit. It’s bumpy, with rails and walls at the apex. So, you make small mistakes and corrections, and you always feel like you could have been a bit closer to the rails.
But after three races without scoring a single point, the young Dane intends to capitalize on his top 10 position to score points at the end of the race: « However, the car was really performing well. It’s just frustrating when you look at the lap times because you feel like we should have been higher. We can be reasonably happy with today. Tomorrow, we need to get off to a good start, have a good first lap, and avoid trouble. Then maybe we can score some good points. »
Jenson Button (No. 22) – 12th and 12th
For the 2009 world champion, his failure to reach Q3 has only one explanation: traffic. He explains: « On the first lap of my last stint in Q2, I came up on one of the two Toro Rosso cars at the Swimming Pool. I don’t think he saw me. Then, he tried to get out of the way in the turn, but there wasn’t enough room for two cars in that part of the circuit. It’s really a shame: the pace was there in Q1, but I couldn’t manage a clean lap in Q2. I have no excuses. »
With such a position on the grid, Jenson Button doesn’t expect much more than a long procession during tomorrow’s race: « The race is going to be difficult starting from 12th. The tires last so long here that it could end up in a procession. Maybe someone will be brave and try some maneuvers to make the race a bit more fun. We’ll see if that changes the order. »
He doesn’t even count on the rain to help him since no driver can hope for rain on the streets of Monaco: « I don’t hope for rain on Sunday. No driver likes the wet here, especially with these tires because you can’t get them up to temperature enough. For everyone’s sake, I think it would be better if it was dry tomorrow. It’s going to be a tough race for me, but I’ll see what I can do. »
