Sunday: McLaren will always allow its drivers to fight
The two McLaren drivers, Jenson Button and Sergio Pérez, lit up the Bahrain race with a superb battle. In the end, it was the Mexican who emerged victorious while this battle forced the Brit to make an additional pit stop. Both drivers nonetheless managed to finish in the points, which is clearly encouraging for the team.
Sergio Perez – 6th:
« It was an incredible race, very enjoyable. First of all, I must thank the entire Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team. We’ve had some tough times recently, but they’ve continued to support me. In the end, it was a solid weekend. We almost got the most out of the car, chose a good strategy, took care of our tires, and scored some very useful points. I was a bit aggressive on the track today. Touching Jenson’s tires was perhaps a bit too risky, a bit too hard, but the team never called us on the radio to tell us to stop fighting. There were no team orders. There was a lot of adrenaline between us, and Jenson is always a very strong driver, but hopefully, we’ll help each other a bit more in the future. However, he was calm and friendly after the race, which was great but not surprising because he’s a great person and a great driver. »
Jenson Button – 10th:
« Today was not a brilliant day for me. Sure, the race was very enjoyable, but I didn’t get the result I wanted because I wore out my tires too much defending against Checo. There was a lot of action, and as I said, as a result, I couldn’t preserve my tires. Partly because I had to fight after my second stop when I was battling with Romain (Grosjean). But the race was very clean, even though Checo was a bit tough, which was rather unusual. He had a great race in the end: he had a good pace and managed his tires well. So congratulations to him because we both scored very useful points for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team. »
