Saturday: Magnussen could have placed McLaren in the top 5
Handicapped by issues that prevented him from running in free practice this morning, Jenson Button couldn't do better than the 12th fastest time. In contrast, his young teammate, Kevin Magnussen, once again made it to Q3, securing an impressive 6th place finish.
Kevin Magnussen (No. 20) – 8th and 6th
The young Dane achieved another good qualification by finishing 6th, but he admits he could have done even better without a small mistake in his last lap: “If everything had gone perfectly today, I think we could have been in the top 5. I made a small mistake in the last corner of my final lap in Q3. Nevertheless, I am quite happy with how things turned out today.”
Above all, this qualification is a sign that McLaren is getting closer to the front: « I think the whole team can be satisfied. We are clearly making progress. So we must keep pushing now. »
Kevin Magnussen is also pleased that neither of the two Mercedes managed to take pole for the first time this season: « It’s good to have a mixed grid. It’s a bit surprising that the gap with Mercedes has closed so quickly and it’s nice to see a Williams on pole. »
As for his hopes for the race, it will be about maintaining the pace shown in qualifying: “I don’t know if our race pace will be like today’s in qualifying. But we will do our best.”
Jenson Button (No. 22) – 24th and 12th [11th on the grid]
The Briton had a complicated start to the weekend as he missed this morning’s third practice session: « You never know how much you lose by missing FP3, but it put us a bit in the dark for qualifying settings. »
Nevertheless, the pace shown by his car should have allowed him to reach Q3. But he was somewhat a victim of traffic, notably from Romain Grosjean’s Lotus: “I think I could have been in the top 10 if my last stint in Q2 had worked out: I was about seven seconds behind Romain’s Lotus, which locked up and went wide in the first three corners. Even though he moved aside to let me pass, I lost a bit of time.”
If he goes relatively far, Jenson Button believes that he will still be able to have fun during the race, notably thanks to the placement of the DRS zones: « You never know how overtaking will go during the race. But being outside the top 10 allows us to run with new tires at the start of the race, and we can play with the strategy. The DRS zones also seem to be interesting. Not having one right after the first corner should make the race more fun because it will require making a maneuver to overtake rather than just passing in the straights. That’s exactly how it should be. »
