Mercedes Benz

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

Yeongam, Republic of Korea, Oct 22, 2010

LEWIS HAMILTON
- MP4-25A-02
- P1 programme: 15 laps, 1m40.887s, 1st
- P2 programme: 29 laps, 1m37.942s (+0.337s), 3rd

“This morning, the track was extremely dusty, so all the drivers were sliding around quite a lot. But the track evolution throughout the day has been quite dramatic, so the track is looking quite good now, even if there’s still plenty of dust off-line.


“We look to be quick along the straights, and we seem to be competitive in the second and third sectors too, which is encouraging. The track is very fast – and you need a good car around here, which I feel we’ve got.

“Today was spent evaluating some new developments we’d brought to this track. The times suggest we look as competitive as the Red Bulls, but the Renaults and Ferraris also look quick – so qualifying might come down to which driver can pull the most time out of his quick lap.”

JENSON BUTTON
- MP4-25A-01
- P1 programme: 16 laps, 1m41.940s (+1.053s), 5th
- P2 programme: 19 laps, 1m38.726s (+0.784s), 5th

“Our car has been performing pretty well here and I’ve been enjoying the circuit – it’s fun and flowing. While the track was pretty tricky initially because it was quite slippery, I felt like we got to grips with it quite quickly. There’s just a lot of dust, that’s the only problem.

“I lost a little bit of time in the afternoon session, which was disappointing because I didn’t get to run with high fuel. The car just overheated – so I jumped out in the pitlane because it started smoking – and we lost a bit of time tidying it up. Apart from that, it’s been a pretty good day.

“We’re very strong in the first sector, which I guess people expected, but we’re also pretty strong in the other sectors, which is encouraging for us. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the weekend, in fact.”

MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

“Today was an encouraging first day for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team. First impressions suggest our new upgrades are working, and that we seem to have the performance to match the other world championship front-runners. We’ll be deploying our new rear wing for the remainder of the weekend.

“Following some extremely in-depth preparatory work undertaken back at the McLaren Technology Centre, both Jenson and Lewis were able to very rapidly get to grips with the new track configuration – something that enabled us to focus even more keenly on set-up development.

“The front-running teams appear to be very evenly matched, which bodes well for an extremely exciting qualifying session tomorrow.”