Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 Nurburgring race review 07.07.2013: 2013 GERMAN GRAND PRIX Nurburgring, Sunday July 7 “We didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend”

 2013 GERMAN GRAND PRIX

Nurburgring, Sunday July 7

“We didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend”




JENSON BUTTON
MP4-28A-03

Started                   9th
Finished                 6th
Fastest lap             1m34.201s (+0.733s, 7th)
Pitstops                 Two: lap 21 (4.09s) and lap 47 (3.23s) [Pri-Pri-Opt]
Points                     33 (10th)


“There are a lot of positives to take away from this weekend; our pace was reasonably good; it’s nice to be racing cars closer to the front, such as the Mercedes; our laptimes compared to the four cars at the front weren’t too bad either; and today’s points are badly needed right now.


“Unfortunately, the two Caterhams fighting in front of me in the closing laps probably cost me fifth place. When you’re fighting for position, you expect the backmarkers to move over, even if they’re fighting for position themselves. It’s a shame – those points could be so important for us later in the season.


“The Safety Car also didn’t help our strategy – but we were a lot stronger this weekend than we’ve been for the past few races.


“We can be positive – as a team, we didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend, and we got the best out of what we have.


“Overall, it’s a positive day for the team – now we just need to find some more pace in the car.”




SERGIO PEREZ
MP4-28A-01

Started                   13th
Finished                 8th
Fastest lap             1m36.134s (+2.666s, 15th)
Pitstops                 Two: lap 7 (3.67s) and 24 (3.64s) [Opt-Pri-Pri]
Points                     16 (12th)



“My car performed a lot better today than it did yesterday. We had better pace and degradation than we’d expected: we managed a very long final stint, and I think we maximised everything today. We should be happy.


“After the Safety Car, it was like the start of a second race. I just focused on preserving the tyres over that long stint – the car and tyres performed very strongly, but we just lost out on the final corner. It was always going to be difficult to hold Mark [Webber] back.


“This is a good step on from Silverstone – it’s been a very promising weekend, and I hope we can take another step forward for Hungary.”




MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes


“Both drivers did a fantastic job this afternoon – they managed the limits of the tyre, pushed aggressively when it was needed and were always able to maximise the pace of the car. It’s just a pity that they each lost position on the final lap.


“That was a little bit frustrating: we had terrible traffic at the end, so Jenson lost a couple of seconds at a critical point in the race. That enabled Lewis [Hamilton] to close him down quicker than normal and take a position that we felt we could have kept.


“The whole team did an extremely good job today: our strategy was perfectly managed, our pitstops were faultless, and the engineers maximised the pace of the car.


“We raced well, but we’re still not where we want to be, although there are positives to take away from today. We’ll be putting out heads down during the three-week break before Hungary and will be aiming to capitalise on the momentum we’ve gathered this weekend.”




Steve Cooper , Silvia Hoffer Frangipane - photo McLaren