Saturday: McLaren is heading in the right direction at Sepang
Even though the front row still seems distant, the two McLaren drivers managed to make it into Q3, which is already better than in Australia.
Jenson Button – 7th and 8th [7th on the grid]:
« I don’t think we could have qualified much better than eighth today. But that being said, being only two tenths in Q3 from the one who won the Australian Grand Prix last week [Kimi Räikkönen] can’t be a bad thing.
Today’s Q3 was of course held on a wet track. But during Q1 and the first half of Q2, it seemed that we were a bit more competitive on the dry than last week. We are still not fast, but the whole team is doing a fantastic job to get everything we can out of the car.
For tomorrow’s race, well, when you have a fast car, you never want rain. When you have a slightly less fast car, you want it to rain. Today, however, we didn’t have a great pace with the intermediate tires in Q3 when it was raining. So all I have to say is that, as always, we will fight and see where the race takes us.
Sergio Perez – 12th and 10th [9th on the grid]:
« When we see how the car behaved at Albert Park just one Grand Prix ago, I think we can say that the qualifying session was encouraging. Jenson [Button] and I both managed to get into Q3, which is a relief. Obviously, we know we still have a long way to go in terms of developing our car. That being said, I can see how much the team is fighting to improve the car and it feels great to be part of such a team.
It often rains in the late afternoon in Sepang. I think tomorrow’s race could be affected by wet conditions since the start is scheduled for 4 PM. But I really enjoy racing on this circuit and, no matter the weather, I will do my best tomorrow to thank the best Formula 1 team.
