Sunday: the weather excuses McLaren’s performance
Eighth and tenth at the finish, the McLaren drivers are disappointed with performances they consider simply insufficient in front of their home crowd, but they believe they did their best. Rainy conditions would likely have suited the MP4-27 better at Silverstone... if only the weather had decided differently. In the standings, Hamilton is 4th and loses two positions with 92 points. Button remains 8th. The team also loses two places in the constructor's standings and is now 4th.
Lewis Hamilton – 8th:
« It wasn’t a good race for me. I just wanted to do better for the fans. We pushed as hard as possible but we simply didn’t have the pace this afternoon.
My tires were still good at the end of my first stint, and I could have kept up with Fernando [Alonso]’s pace. So it’s difficult to understand how you can lead the race by a few meters and end up finishing 8th, especially since the car didn’t seem that bad…
I ran with all my might until the end. We are still in the running for the championship, and if we can find a bit more performance, we will continue to contend for the title until the end.
I did a ‘donut’ during my slowdown lap simply to thank the fans and everyone who came to see us today. I wish I could have done better for my home Grand Prix, but even without that, the fans were amazing throughout the weekend.
Jenson Button – 10th:
« It’s good to have scored points for my Grand Prix, but it’s not really what we wanted to do. We have a team that should be fighting for the top spots, and we need to improve in certain areas to get back to the front ranks. I don’t think we made any mistakes with our strategy today. We’re just lacking performance at the moment, that’s all.
But more than anything, I’m sorry for the fans who came to Silverstone because they were just amazing this weekend. I love them, and we would have liked to give them a better result today. So I’m sorry, guys, we weren’t able to fight at the front today, but I hope we can do it very soon.
