My Mercedes Car: vmm

LEWIS HAMILTON
- MP4-27A-03
- Started: 2nd
- Finished: 8th
- Fastest lap: 1m37.733s (+1.354s, 7th)
- Pitstops: Three: laps 9, 23 and 36 (Opt-Pri-Pri-Pri)
- 2012 points: 49 (2nd)

“There are good times and bad times in motor racing. I guess this was just one of those days.

“By rights we should have been fighting to finish in the top four today, but it didn’t work out like that in the end. The delays in the pits were a big part of that, of course. For the driver sitting in the car, that’s always frustrating, because you’re just waiting and there’s nothing you can do to help.

“We lost a bit of world championship momentum today – but, on the plus side, we still picked up four world championship points, and every point you score is valuable in a season as close-fought as this one.

“Now we’ll head into the European season, and it’s clear that we’ve got to do two things: we’ve got to work on the pace of our car and we’ve got to improve our pitstops.”

JENSON BUTTON
- MP4-27A-02
- Started: 4th
- Finished: Retired (lap 55, differential)
- Fastest lap: 1m38.046s (+1.667s, 9th)
- Pitstops: Four: laps 8, 22, 37 and 53 (puncture) (Opt-Pri-Pri-Pri-Opt)
- 2012 points: 43 (4th)

“I didn’t have a very good balance today: I was struggling all afternoon with oversteer. We were taking front wing out of the car all the way through the race, in fact.

“However, my final stint was a long one, and, if I hadn’t struck trouble, I reckon things would have got quite interesting in the final laps. Some drivers had pushed harder at the start of that stint, but I’d been looking after my tyres. Into the last five laps, I started pushing pretty hard, and I caught up with Paul [di Resta] and Nico [Rosberg]. But, just as I braked for the final corner [on lap 53], the right-front corner lifted up in the air and I realised I had a [left-rear] puncture. So I quickly radioed the team, and pitted.

“In the last few laps, the car sounded really noisy. I think the initial problem was an exhaust failure, then my puncture, and then a differential failure; so I had to retire.

“It’s been a pretty difficult weekend for the whole team.”

MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

“Clearly, our performance was disappointing this afternoon.

“Having said that, both Lewis and Jenson drove very well in extremely challenging conditions.

“Lewis pulled off some sensational passing manoeuvres in his efforts to push his way through to the front, but in the end he was let down by two slow pitstops, both of which were caused by delays at the left-rear corner of his car. Jenson’s pitstops were trouble-free, by contrast, so we’ll have to investigate what the problem was with the left-rear corner of Lewis’s car.

“Jenson, too, had a frustrating run, which was finally curtailed by a puncture and a problem with both his differential and his exhaust, the combination of which forced us to retire his car. Again, we’ll investigate what caused those problems in due course.

“Having said all that, we’re in second position in the constructors’ world championship, just nine points behind the leaders; equally, our drivers lie second and fourth in the drivers’ world championship. Lewis, in second, is just four points off the lead.

“From here we travel to Barcelona, on which circuit we performed strongly in pre-season testing.

“Lewis and Jenson are as resilient as they are competitive, so you can be well sure that in Spain they’ll both do their utmost to score as many points as possible in an effort to put Vodafone McLaren Mercedes back at the top of both the drivers’ and the constructors’ world championship standings.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the 2012 season is shaping up to be both gripping and unpredictable. Some races you win, some you don’t. That’s motor racing. But, above all, motor racing is a team sport – and I probably know better than anyone what a superb bunch of men and women the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team is made up of, which is why I’m utterly certain that every last one of them will now work as hard as is humanly possible to make sure that, on the sweeping curves of the Circuit di Catalunya, we’re back where we belong: at the front.”

~ Official photos and report courtesy of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes ~

Copyright © 2012, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.

LEWIS HAMILTON
- MP4-27A-03
- P3 programme: 4th, 1m33.782s (+0.528s), 16 laps
- Qualifying:
- Q1: 16th, 1m34.813s (on Primes)
- Q2: 1st, 1m33.209s (on Options)
- Q3: 2nd overall, 1m32.520s (on Options)

“I’m very happy with how qualifying went and the job the team has done so far this weekend. I’ve put the car on the front row at every race this year, and I feel this was one of my best qualifying performances so far. Both my laps in Q3 were very good and I feel I got everything out of the car.

“Fingers crossed for tomorrow: both Red Bull drivers will be very hard to beat in the race, but we’re less than a tenth behind on race pace. The start could be key – we’ve had good launches all season so I expect us to be able to challenge Seb [Vettel] down to Turn One.

“This season is shaping up to be very interesting: it’s anyone’s for the taking, at the moment”

JENSON BUTTON
- MP4-27A-04
- P3 programme: 6th, 1m33.899s (+0.645s) 14 laps
- Qualifying:
- Q1: 15th, 1m34.792s (on Primes)
- Q2: 6th, 1m33.416s (on Options)
- Q3: 4th overall, 1m32.711s (on Options)

“Fourth position wasn’t quite what I’d been hoping for, but it’s not too bad. It’s always a horrible feeling on your final Q3 lap when the balance isn’t quite where you want it. I couldn’t get the best from the car so I pitted early to save the tyres. Besides, fourth isn’t too bad anyway.

“The car is definitely a lot better than it was yesterday – we made some improvements overnight. We’d expected the Red Bulls to be very quick in qualifying, so to be close to them is a positive. A nice surprise is that we’re ahead of Nico [Rosberg] who was on pole just a week ago.

“A good launch tomorrow will be very important – both Lewis and I will be starting on the dirty side of the grid, which makes things more difficult, so we’ll need to get it right. Tyre management will be crucial too.

“I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

“As we’ve already got used to seeing this season, it was very tight at the top today.

“Even the early stages of qualifying – Q1 and Q2 – are nowadays extremely hard to get through. Michael [Schumacher] and Kimi [Raikkonen] can confirm that.

“As for our boys, well, Lewis drove an excellent lap, and missed out on pole position by just a tenth of a second. Jenson, too, was his usual rapid and reliable self, ending up in fourth place, directly behind Lewis on tomorrow’s grid.

“The race will inevitably be a physically challenging one for all the drivers, as is always the case in hot climates such as Bahrain’s, but we’ve got two tough racers in Lewis and Jenson and our intention is to go for the win.”