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McLaren
Jenson Button (2nd)
“This has been an extremely encouraging weekend for us. It’s very satisfying to come away with a good lot of world championship points – everyone in the team has done an amazing job and we should feel very proud of ourselves. Today’s race was all about looking after the tyres. On the way to the grid, I purposely took a lot of front wing out of the car, which was a mistake because I had massive understeer for the first stint, which also hurt the rear tyres. I just got the balance wrong. So at each pit stop, I dialled in more front wing and my pace kept getting better and better. At the end, the Prime tyre was really working for me. I knew Lewis had a problem in one of his pit stops and that I would be able to come out in front of him, but my pace was very good anyway. It was a great afternoon. In the closing laps, the team told me to take it easy on the tyres, but I chased down Sebastian as much as I could all the same – still, it wasn’t quite enough. We should all feel very encouraged that we have a good, strong package. I still don’t think we’re getting the best from it yet – but I hope we will in China, and that Lewis and I will both have great races.â€
Lewis Hamilton (8th)
“Today was just one of those days. It’s never satisfying to start second and finish seventh, but that’s racing. We just have to take it on the chin and move on from it. At the start, I was on the outside going into the first corner, I got squeezed and it was difficult to defend without risking hitting Jenson or Nick (Heidfeld). Then, during the race, my tyres kept dropping off; we pitted earlier than was optimal, and ran out of tyres at the end. I’d hoped to make the end of the race on a set of used primes, but they didn’t last so we had to pit right at the end of the race. There were a lot of factors that made this afternoon very difficult: the delay at the pit stop, being chased by a couple of cars when I was trying to look after my tyres, and being hit from behind by Fernando (Alonso). I think he got a bit too close, and, when he pulled out, he just clipped me with his wing and broke my car’s rear floor. I don’t how much downforce that lost me. Today wasn’t the greatest of days, but I’m going to China aiming to win; I’m only looking forwards.”
Note – Hamilton originally finished seventh, but had 20s added to his race time for making more than one change of direction in defending his position from Alonso. Alonso had 20s added for causing a collision with Hamilton.