It is one of the more hard circuits for us because of deployment and fuel.
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“We’re running the vehicle a little bit different to normal here, because there’s a lot of work going into next year, so that’s promising”, he said.
“You require more disadvantages having the vehicle when you realize you’re not exactly selecting points”.
After assessing the data so far, racing director Eric Boullier said: “It was very positive”.
Jenson Button claims that speed helped his McLaren through to 13th on the grid at the Russian Grand Prix.
“Q1 was straightforward – I was only a tenth and a half off the top 10”.
“Q2 was slightly commonplace for us, approximately four or two tenths with P10”.
In Q2, Button ended the session in P13 and says he feels encouraged by the improved showing: “This was probably my best qualifying performance of the year”.
Fernando Alonso: “In terms of power effect, this circuit was always going to be tricky for us”.
While Fernando Alonso narrowly missed out on joining Button in Q2, he was content with the outcome, given he would have started last anyway based on a 25-place grid penalty.
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From the forthcoming race at COTA onward, McLaren and Honda will run the new unit with Alonso, with the plan to hand teammate Jenson Button the updates for Mexico. “We didn’t have any clear target in qualifying because we are starting last. So we introduced this engine here because we know it’s a track layout that doesn’t suit our package, and then run it from the race in the U.S.”. “The race will still be important for us, as we have a few experimental parts here which are looking towards next year’s project, and we need a few information from those”.
