Formula One news

McLaren delighted with qualifying

McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix from pole position after setting a time of 1m18.404 in the final moments of Saturday's thrilling qualifying session. Today's result marked Hamilton's 12th time on the pole, the seventh for McLaren Mercedes this year and the 61st for the McLaren-Mercedes
partnership. Heikki Kovalainen underlined the team's competitiveness, finishing third fastest with a time of 1m18.821. 

"Usually, on a heavy fuel load, the car can be quite tough to drive on the limit, but I managed to pull all the sectors together and drove a pretty good lap," said Hamilton. "It wasn't perfect - I made a small mistake in the final corner, where I lost a tenth - but we had a good session. The team has done a phenomenal job all weekend, and Heikki's and my pace today really underlines that. We think we've got a good strategy for tomorrow and we want to finish at the front."

Kovalainen commented, "A pretty good session for me - it took a little time to get up to speed in Q1, but I put two good laps together in the final session. We were very quick in Q2 as well - and, while third was really the best I could manage today, I'm still very pleased with the result. We're still targeting both world championships in these final few races so I'll be looking for the very best result for myself and the team tomorrow."

Team boss Ron Dennis added, "First and third in qualifying is clearly a very satisfying result - and represents a very strong team performance. Lewis's pole lap was awesome in the proper sense of that often-abused adjective - in fact I'd go so far as to say that it was possibly the best lap of his career so far. Heikki's lap was also very impressive and extremely pleasing - because it showcases the strength and depth of our driver line-up and of our whole team. Having said all that, although we'll enjoy our qualifying success this evening, the race is what really matters and all I'll say about that is that we've sacrificed nothing in our efforts to achieve advantageous grid positions and are therefore looking forward to putting in a very competitive performance tomorrow."

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