Mixed bag for McLaren

02/09/2012

Mat Coch writes:

Qualifying proved to be a mixed bag for McLaren, with Jenson Button claiming pole while Lewis Hamilton was only capable of seventh.

McLaren brought a number of new developments for its car this weekend, specifically a low downforce rear wing. Limited running on Friday however hampered the team's programme, preventing it from properly evaluating ithe wing, though Button still chose to run the new version and Hamilton opted for the old one.

"I spoke to my engineers and we decided to stay where we are because with the sun out hopefully the circuit would grip up," Button explained.

"We thought it was the best option, we just didn't think running that much drag for today - and also more importantly for tomorrow - would be the right thing," he continued. "It should be good for us, and we should be good in a straight line, we shouldn't need to push as much in the corners but you never know. We don't know who's going to be quick."

Hamilton, who used the older spec wing, found himself down on pace compared with Button. "This morning in P3 I had some instabilities with the new wing that we were trying," he lamented. "I was told, or we believed, that the gap between those two wings wasn't so big but we proved ourselves wrong. It was obviously the wrong way to go."

It was a difficult session for Hamilton, who took to Twitter to vent his frustration. A message lamenting his performance in comparison to his teammate was quickly removed:

In an effort to calm the waters he subsequently Tweeted:

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh was quick to voice the team's frustrations. "We feel we made a wrong decision," he said during the post-qualifying team interview. "We didn't have very much data, as you know, very limited running. We didn't look sparkling competitive with either car this morning, and thought we'd make some changes.

"It's easy to under react and then be kicking yourself, but perhaps we overreacted."