Saturday: Button places McLaren in a good position for the race
Author of a disappointing first half of the season, McLaren hopes to improve its results starting with this Grand Prix. It's mission accomplished with a sixth place in qualifying secured by Jenson Button. Sergio Perez, on the other hand, was stuck in Q2 after a timing error by his team.
Jenson Button – 6th and 6th
« On the dry, we are relatively happy with our pace, and in the wet, I think it was a bit better. I find that sixth place for us is a good result, consequently. However, we’re missing a bit compared to what we hoped for, and we think it’s due to an aerodynamic efficiency issue. We need to carefully analyze that before Monza.
But, to return to Spa, our time was insufficient at the end of Q3, which allowed the top three to achieve faster times than us. Still, the fact that there are three Britons in the top six is just great.
As for tomorrow, if the weather is dry or variable, as we expect, then things will become tricky for the leading drivers, because I think we have used up all our stock of intermediate tires.
In any case, we will see what happens. It should be an interesting race.
Sergio Perez – 16th and 13th
« In tricky conditions like today, you need to be in the right place at the right time, and it’s a shame that we weren’t able to optimize our potential by doing that, but on a wet track our car is quite good and so we had a good opportunity to qualify well this afternoon.
I am a bit disappointed, obviously, because we went out a bit too late and missed the window, which prevented us from doing a lap that would have opened Q3 for us. It’s a shame because the track was improving over time, and we could have significantly improved our time.
But that’s the game – and tomorrow is another day – and our car should be reasonably competitive if it rains. So I’ll try my best to turn tomorrow’s disappointment into some points for the team.
