McLaren: Hamilton strong on "disastrous" Pirellis

McLaren: Hamilton strong on “disastrous” Pirellis

2011 Spanish GP team review

May 23, 2011 at 4:55 pm by Keith Collantine

Lewis Hamilton described the new Pirelli tyres as “disastrous” – but used them to good effect on Sunday.

	Lewis Hamilton	Jenson Button
Qualifying position	3	5
Qualifying time comparison (Q3)	1’21.961 (-0.035)	1’21.996
Race position	2	3
Laps	66/66	66/66
Pit stops	4	3

McLaren drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51	52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59	60	61
Lewis Hamilton	96.991	91.189	90.239	90.011	90.083	90.127	90.183	90.464	90.526	90.838	92.882	105.417	89.076	89.875	89.844	89.976	90.001	90.482	89.603	88.024	88.595	89.022	91.408	105.362	87.841	88.047	88.15	87.706	88.09	89.879	88.459	89.61	89.338	90.054	92.869	106.276	88.458	88.371	88.343	88.705	88.516	88.21	88.072	89.434	87.497	87.827	88.268	89.217	90.037	105.301	87.881	86.727	86.911	87.386	88.058	87.879	87.548	87.422	87.655	87.185	87.167
Jenson Button	100.998	93.15	92.804	91.195	91.097	91.635	92.104	92.008	92.05	92.953	91.496	91.684	91.335	93.547	106.433	88.792	89.107	89.463	89.694	89.668	89.626	89.198	89.511	89.811	90.013	89.935	90.05	90.221	90.188	93.425	106.938	88.49	88.995	88.887	89.349	88.991	88.658	89.106	89.168	88.913	89.045	88.735	88.83	89.028	89.168	89.279	89.93	92.247	105.467	88.814	87.92	87.892	88.639	88.013	87.978	88.015	88.612	87.657	87.631	87.878	88.643

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Barcelona, 2011

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton was not impressed with his first taste of Pirelli’s new compound hard tyre, describing it as “disastrous” in a media briefing.

But he showed good pace on the car late in the race and hounded Sebastian Vettel to the flag, finishing just six tenths of a second behind the Red Bull.

This was despite qualifying almost exactly a second slower than the RB7s.

Hamilton entertained thoughts of leading by the first corner but he had no answer for Fernando Alonso’s flying getaway and fell to fourth.

He gained a place from Mark Webber at the first round of pit stops and jumped Alonso at the second.

In his third stint he cut into Vettel’s lead and continued the process after switching to hard tyres for his fourth stint.

On each of the last 14 laps he came past the pits less than a second behind Vettel; DRS open, KERS activated, trying to make a move into the first corner. But he couldn’t get close enough and said afterwards: “I never had an opportunity to overtake.”

“It was incredible how much downforce he had, a good step on us, and also through turn nine and through the last corner. So I was never ever able to get close enough to maintain the gap that I was then able to use the DRS to get by.”

Lewis Hamilton 2011 form guide

Jenson Button

Button qualified fifth, just three-hundredths of a second slower than his team mate but two places behind him. But he dropped back with a slow start which left him ninth by the first corner.

He passed Massa around the outside of turn four but was held up at turn five and Massa went around him and Sebastien Buemi.

Button spent the next few laps battling with Buemi, eventually getting past on lap five on the exit of turn four.

As has often been the case this year, Button proved able to make the soft tyres last longer. He made his first pit stop five laps after Vettel and came out in sixth, before quickly picking off Michael Schumacher for fifth.

He staved off his next pit stop until lap 30. By this time Alonso and Webber had already made their third pit stops and were now on hard tyres. Button reeled them in with ease and passed both on lap 35.

Webber caught back up to the McLaren later in the race but dropped back as his hard tyres went off, leaving Button secure in third.

Afterwards he commented on how McLaren had been much closer to Red Bull’s pace during the race: “We obviously have upgrades on the car which have helped our performance compared to the cars behind.

“But yeah, to see such a big difference in qualifying, a second to the Red Bull and then see our pace in the race, I was a little bit surprised.

“And the car felt better than what we experienced on Friday. I think the circuit came to us a little bit and maybe the temperatures helped. But the car was much better today than it has been. For me, it’s got better throughout the weekend which is great.”

Jenson Button 2011 form guide

2011 Spanish Grand Prix

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46 comments on McLaren: Hamilton strong on “disastrous” Pirellis

Klaas said on 24th May 2011, 10:45

McLaren has been a pleasant team to watch this season. Hamilton is putting on great fights with the Bulls. I just wish Button was more aggresive. He is doing a good job in picking up points for the Constructor’s Championship but he’s no near Hamilton. I really miss the McLaren from 2007, even though it was a tense situation in the team, even if it ended in such a drama, that was the most competitive and exciting season the team had for the last 10 years. Hope Button retires soon and Hamilton gets a team-mate of his calibre.

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