Saturday: Another Dark Day for McLaren

On this Saturday, the day of the final practice sessions and qualifications, the McLaren team was unable to reach the level of the leaders; in fact, they are quite far from it. This morning’s final practice sessions did not bode well. Lewis Hamilton is in 12th place and Heikki Kovalainen, 15th.

This afternoon, it is therefore logical that the two drivers find themselves in the middle and back of the grid. They will start 14th and 16th with the Finn ahead of the Briton. The problem: A definite lack of grip, combined with very tight competition, making the situation complicated and unforgiving of any mistakes.

Heikki Kovalainen – 15th and 14th:

« Our car doesn’t have enough grip to attack. The other drivers seem to have more. They are able to better use the soft tires while we are losing performance. Braking and acceleration are still very good, but we just lose grip when temperatures rise. The gap with the leaders is still too big. We have a lot of work to do to get closer to the front. Tomorrow, the race will be difficult. »

Lewis Hamilton – 12th and 16th:

Our car seems slower compared to the others. I pushed as hard as I could today, but I had no grip on the track. We must now ensure not to make too many changes to the car for the upcoming races: We will take our time, refine things, and fix the issues with our car. The team has done a fantastic job. They work day and night with the same determination and drive as before. This is clearly going to be a challenging year for us, but I have no doubt that we will bounce back.

Martin Whitmarsh – Team Principal:

At the risk of stating the obvious, today’s qualifying session was very disappointing for us. That said, we are not disappointed because we expected this result today and it will be the same for tomorrow. Even though, in hindsight, we might have put the soft tires on Heikki [Kovalainen] in Q2. Some drivers were going faster. On the other hand, other drivers who stayed on hard tires were fast. The fact is, it is very difficult to reach Q3 if your car is anyway slower than the others.