Formula 1 News

2009 Brazilian GP, practice: McLaren quotes 

Martin Whitmarsh: “Firstly, it’s a great feeling to be back in Brazil, and, in particular, here at Interlagos. This circuit holds some very happy memories for the whole team, and they came flooding back this morning once the sessions started. Interlagos hasn’t normally been a circuit where our race pace has been strong, but today’s running has certainly showed a remarkable level of consistency, which we are confident will carry over into the race on Sunday. Today’s times also show that the pace of both Red Bulls looks very strong, but we believe we’ll have a competitive racing car for this weekend.”

Heikki Kovalainen: “A productive day. The times may not necessarily show it, but we’ve made some good progress today. We followed a disciplined programme, focusing on our race pace and evaluating both tyre compounds. Our pace on both tyres appears to be very good and we suffered very limited degradation, so I think our race pace will be good.”

Norbert Haug: “Not a bad day. We’ve been posting quick and consistent lap times in our race simulations. Lewis in 10th position was a little less than three tenths slower than Rubens Barrichello in third, and the three world championship contenders did similar lap times to Lewis. All 20 cars are separated by less than a second on their fastest laps, so it’s closer than ever in Formula 1. I’m not too concerned about our positions in today’s rankings. Tomorrow and on Sunday, we hopefully should be as competitive as in the last races, but of course there is always room for improvement.”

Lewis Hamilton: “We had a good Friday. We’re not the fastest, but our long runs appear to be quite consistent. We’re not as quick as the Red Bulls, but, for Brazil – where we haven’t traditionally been quick – we’re quite happy with the pace we have. In the past, we’ve always been quick in qualifying but not as quick in the race. KERS is worth close to four tenths in quali and around half that in the race, so I’m optimistic for tomorrow afternoon and think the consistency we showed today will reward us in the race.”

source: McLaren Mercedes