MP4-24-04
P3 programme
1m21.009s (19 laps, 1st)
Lewis completed three runs this morning. Starting on Prime tyres, he ran a four-lap stint (1m22.280s fastest time) to measure the changes made to the car overnight. He declared himself more satisfied with the car’s rear-end and completed two further runs – a single lap of 1m22.074s (the run was cut short following Adrian Sutil’s crash into the tyre barrier) and a five-lap run on the Option (1m21.009s). He finished the session fastest overall.
Qualifying
Q1 1m20.842s (2nd)
Q2 1m20.465s (2nd)
Q3 1m21.839s (4th overall)
With a change in weather conditions making the circuit trickier to drive, both drivers struggled for pace this afternoon. Lewis ran three laps on the Prime before switching to Options and setting a 1m20.842s, second fastest. He completed two single-lap runs on Options (1m21.064s and 1m20.465s) in Q2 to again finish second. Into Q2, despite some confusion over the overall positions following a brief failure of the timing system, he set a 1m21.839s to line up fourth, on the dirty side of the track, for tomorrow’s race.
“It was so hard out there this afternoon,” said Lewis. “Maybe we could have been closer to the front because my final lap wasn’t a great one, but fourth is a good position from which to start tomorrow’s race. We’re still not quick enough and need to keep pushing but, nonetheless, it feels great to be back up there competing for the first few rows on the grid.
“I have a few cars to try and boost past so I hope there’s some good grip on my side of the grid – it would be fantastic to get the lead into the first corner.
“Finally, I want to send my best wishes to Felipe. It looked quite a big crash so I just hope he’s okay.”
MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
“Both Lewis and Heikki drove solid laps in Q3, and the result was our best overall qualifying performance of the year so far. We believe we have a good race strategy, and we should therefore be competitive tomorrow. Our goal is to have a car, or ideally cars plural, in podium positions by flag-fall – and that looks possible.
“Felipe’s accident was very unpleasant to watch on the TV monitors, and we all very much hope that he’s sustained only minor injuries from which he’ll make a full and fast recovery.”
NORBERT HAUG
Vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“First and foremost, our thoughts are with Felipe Massa who suffered a terrible accident in Q2, which was beyond his control. Hopefully he will recover soon.
“After such a shocking accident, it is difficult to go back to evaluating the performance immediately after qualifying, which turned out to be due to a malfunctioning timing system – more of a guessing session.
“But Lewis and Heikki did great laps and the team has made big steps forward during the last month. Starting from the second and third rows – even if both our drivers will be positioned on the less grippy side – is a good basis for tomorrow’s race. I obviously hope that Lewis and Heikki will be able to ‘do a Nurburgring’ on their colleagues ahead of them by making up, in the best case, respectively three or five places to the first corner.”
