Report: McLaren wanted to win but couldn’t do anything…

One might think that McLaren made a blunder with serious consequences for the outcome of their race. Well, not at all. On the contrary, according to the words of the various protagonists, they tried everything to win the Grand Prix… To recap, Lewis Hamilton arrived in the pits and lost a few seconds because his tires weren’t ready. Knowing Barrichello’s pace on the track, the Woking team tried everything to win the race because their calculations indicated the Brazilian as the winner. That’s why they decided to bring Hamilton in early, as they had the idea of a strategy change, the only weapon to potentially step onto the top spot.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out and the Brit is second. Kovalainen is 4th, a good place even though he admits to being disappointed starting from the front row. These are 13 new points for McLaren, the team that has scored the most points in the last three GPs. A satisfaction before the Belgian meeting.

Lewis Hamilton – 2nd:

« It’s my second podium in a row, and I’m very happy to be here. We did the best job possible today. Am I disappointed? Yes, I think we all are, but it shows the team’s motivation. We are never satisfied unless we are winning, actually. But, in the end, we didn’t really make any mistakes today, it was very hard to beat Rubens [Barrichello]. Before my second stop, I had saved fuel. I was ready to pit, but just as I was arriving, they told me to stay out and do an extra lap. However, I was already inside the white line [at the pit entry] and especially already committed, it was too late. »

« In any case, our performance over the weekend confirmed our overall improvement, but there is still some ground to cover compared to the fastest cars. You can be sure that we are working on it. Congratulations to Rubens, he delivered a fantastic race and truly deserves this victory. »

Heikki Kovalainen – 4th:

« To start, second and fourth isn’t bad. But I’m happier with my overall performance than in Hungary. We showed good performances throughout the weekend, and I want to thank the whole team for reaching this goal. We don’t have the pace to be first yet, but everyone did an incredible job. We scored more points over the last three races than any other team, but I want to score even more. I’m already focusing on Spa, it’s a circuit I love and I really want to be on the podium there. »

Martin Whitmarsh – Team Principal:

« Following our qualifications with a double, naturally, we had very high expectations for today’s race. However, our race pace was not good enough to beat Rubens’ car. We had adopted a different strategy in terms of tires, which might have helped us, but the reality is that we weren’t fast enough to win today. So, during the pit stops, we took a calculated risk by attempting to overturn the sequence of Lewis and Heikki at the last second. This last decision caused some confusion in the pits, which probably cost a few seconds, but the pace set by Rubens was such that a few seconds did not make a difference at the end of the race. »

In a word, we decided to take this risk because we knew Rubens had the strategy to win, and it was our only chance to prevent that. We didn’t win but second and fourth positions, that’s not so bad. Now, we will turn our attention to the challenge that Spa presents, a different type of circuit compared to Valencia.