Our intention is to go for the win: McLaren team

Bahrain, 21 April 2012: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton exuded confidence and would be going for an all-out win in the Bahrain Grand Prix, the fourth GP of thw Formula One World Championship, at the Sakhir international circuit on Sunday though he would be starting from the second place.

While Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, the current world champion got the best position this year by taking the pole position, Lewis Hamilton who got three podium places in the last three races (after starting on pole) took the top spot on the leader board of the drivers’ championship and is all geared up to go for a kill from the second place with teammate Jenson Button taking the fourth spot..

LEWIS HAMILTON

MP4-27A-03

P3

4^th                                         1m33.782s (+0.528s) 16 laps

Qualifying

Q1 16^th                    1m34.813s (on Primes)

Q2 1^st                      1m33.209s (on Options)

Q3 2^nd 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

6^th                            1m33.899s (+0.645s) 14 laps

 

Qualifying

Q1 15^th                    1m34.792s (on Primes)

Q2 6^th                      1m33.416s (on Options)

Q3 4^th 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.”

ends