Sunday: Both McLarens managed to score points
Sign of the times: at McLaren, they declare themselves happy simply for having scored points with both cars. Jenson Button managed to climb from 17th place at the end of the first lap to 8th place in the end, thanks to excellent tire management. On the other hand, Sergio Pérez couldn't do better than 9th, despite a promising position on the starting grid.
Jenson Button – 8th:
« It was an interesting race. The formation lap was very slow, which hurt us and my start wasn’t good. I had no grip and the first corner was complicated. I was unlucky to be 17th at the end of the first lap. We adopted the same approach as in China, choosing a different strategy than the others. Finishing 8th shows that the team did a good job with this strategy. I don’t know if we improved our package but we beat cars we shouldn’t have beaten.
It’s positive that both cars are in the points. Hopefully, this is the start of a good trend. We have gathered a lot of useful information and we will work on it over the next races to continue developing the MP4-28.
I would like to say a big thank you for all the support I received from the British fans throughout the weekend. It was great to see so many red Vodafone caps and T-shirts in the stands. Hopefully, we can have a sold-out race at Silverstone, and we’ll be stronger there. There’s still a lot of work to do. It’s tough right now, but I’m glad we can do the best we can.
Sergio Perez – 9th:
« It wasn’t the race we were hoping for. It’s so difficult to manage these tires. We didn’t do a perfect job and like many drivers, we had to make four pit stops. So I didn’t maximize the car’s potential today. I wasn’t happy from that perspective. That being said, I think we were stronger this weekend. Our car continues to improve and I think we can do a little better in Monaco. After that, I hope we can make up some of the gap to the cars ahead of us in the coming races. »
