Jenson Button admits that he’s surprised just how fast Red Bull was in qualifying in Spain relative to the opposition.
Mark Webber was 0.9s ahead of third qualifier Lewis Hamilton, and 1s in front of Button himself, who starts fifth. Nevertheless Jenson says he’s happy with the progress McLaren has made since the last race.
“We’ve done a very good job this weekend I think,” said the World Champion. “Yesterday we struggled a bit with the balance, but we’ve got the best out of the package we have today. There’s still more that we would like, and we’re still working very, very hard for improvements. There are still some areas where we are obviously losing. I think after this weekend when we head to Monaco it’s a very different race, and hopefully we can be closer to the Red Bulls and maybe challenge them.
“But I am a little bit surprised at how quick they are. It does mean that we have to go away and look at the areas and hopefully improve as quick as possible. Monaco’s next, and then we’ve got some other circuits where it’s very important to have good aero.”
Button admitted that it was a little confusing that McLaren was much closer to the Red Bull pace on the harder tyres used earlier in qualifying.
“I think when you have a car like Red Bull have, it’s very easy to get the best out of the tyres. I think our pace on the harder tyre, we were closer to them, but were they just sandbagging? They’ve got so much pace on us that maybe they were hanging back, maybe they didn’t have the revs turned up in Q1, I don’t know.
“But they are very quick on both tyres, I don’t think it matters whether it’s hard or soft, they’re quick. In high speed corners they’ve been strong, but they’re also very strong on corner exits, have very good traction. A lot of it is also because they can carry the speed through corners, they have a stable rear end. They’re in a very good position.”
Adam Cooper F1 