Satisfaction for McLaren to be back in Q3

Little by little, things are improving at McLaren. To the point that Ron Dennis stated before the weekend that the team to succeed Mercedes as Constructors’ champion would be McLaren. We’re not quite there yet since both drivers already have to fight to make it into Q3 today.

If Fernando Alonso finally managed it, his qualification was almost compromised by the red flag caused by Max Verstappen in Q1: « We had a bit of stress with the red flag stop in Q1: we only had six minutes and I still didn’t have a time. »

He finally managed to achieve a good enough time to overcome this obstacle, even before being able to advance to Q3, which was his main goal of the day. Nevertheless, in this final part of the session, the Spaniard admits that he wasn’t at 100% as he still lacks confidence in the behavior of his car: « Our main objective today was to reach Q3 but I still don’t have full confidence in the car. I didn’t have a perfect feeling and I wasn’t confident enough to attack completely in the corners. »

If he thus achieved the 10th fastest time in the final part of the qualifying, he benefits from Kimi Räikkönen’s penalty and will therefore be able to start in 9th position.

Jenson Button finished his Saturday after Q2, with the 13th fastest time of the session, which was already his position in Q1 and during free practice 3. Nevertheless, he is pinning all his hopes on the rain to hope for something at the end of the race since his Honda engine will not allow him to be threatening at the tunnel exit: « It’s Monaco, anything can happen. The first corner is usually hectic. After that, it’s about staying behind the guy in front of you. You can try diving inside another car at turn 10, but it’s not possible for us because we’re too far back when we get to that part of the track. So I hope it will rain tomorrow. »