McLaren duo hoping for sunshine on race day at Hockenheim
22 July, 2012
Jenson Button during qualifying for the German GP
Jul.22 (Reuters) McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were optimistic they could challenge the leaders in Sunday’s German Grand Prix despite more tyre-related frustration in qualifying, but provided the weather obliges and sunshine prevails on race day at Hockenheim.
Despite car upgrades, the pair struggled in the wet conditions that have plagued their performances in qualifying for two Grands Prix in a row now, at Silverstone in Britain and Hockenheim. If the forecast dry weather turns out correct on race day, they said they could be in with a shout.
“It does feel that it’s a good improvement,” Button told reporters after finishing seventh in qualifying, with Ferrari’s championship leader Fernando Alonso on pole.
Button added, “I think we should be happy with the progress we have made with the new package. For tyre degradation and outright pace we’re strong but as soon as it started raining we knew we were going to struggle.”
Button said he was quite impressed to be so far up the grid in the circumstances, even if it had been a frustrating afternoon.
“When the tyres are working, it is good but we feel we’re on a knife edge and it’s difficult for us to understand,” he explained. “The car is very strong in the dry and I think we can race well, we have to solve our issues of getting our tyres working.”
Hamilton, who was eighth, said: “It was like driving on ice for us. We’re disappointed with the end result but we’re looking good in the dry, it was looking okay through the first two sessions,” said the 2008 champion. “I don’t know how everyone went that much quicker than us at the end.”
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Mclaren never had luck in their history… So there wont be any sunshine in today’s race… Like heavy down pour(as expected) they will get down in both the standings
I was eagerly waiting how fast they can be in race But if they cant get a podium then we can believe the Mclaren was Updated massively