McLaren making inroads
McLaren-Honda presented itself as best of the rest behind the trio of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. The team’s Spanish driver Fernando Alonso hung on the seventh position which he kept almost all weekend long.
Fernando Alonso was happy to finish the race with a good haul of points. He did so without retirements of the top cars. McLaren-Honda was only beaten by F1’s current top three giants.
“Well, P7 has been my position all weekend! It’s a pity we couldn’t improve this afternoon but still I think we were best of the rest today,” said Fernando.
“Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari are out of reach at the moment for everyone – they’re on another level – so, in the other mini-championship we’re racing in, we were quite competitive and I feel we delivered the maximum we could today.”
The two-time champion admitted that his race was far from action-packed as the group ahead of him was far away and he was not really annoyed from behind.
“There wasn’t much action in the race though. For us, it was a little bit of a boring afternoon at some points – not the usual Hungaroring show – and the only retirement, unfortunately, was Jenson.
Alonso builds his confidence on the fact that McLaren was strong in Silverstone two weeks ago and also on the Hungaroring which are two very different circuits.
“I’m happy about how the weekend went and hopefully we can keep this up progress. We’ve been more or less competitive here and at Silverstone, on two very different circuits, so I’m looking forward to next weekend at Hockenheim.”
Alonso’s team-mate Jenson Button had a torrid race with reliability problems.
“It wasn’t a great afternoon for me,” lamented Jenson.
Button had ‘long pedals’ which meant his brake pedals did not work perfectly.
“We had a brake sensor problem early on, which meant the pedal went to the floor, and it’s never nice for a driver to get that feeling.”
“The brakes just weren’t there, which was a big safety concern. The team told me to make a switch change on the steering wheel to make sure it wouldn’t happen again, and it duly resolved itself, but we got a penalty for the communication.”
Jenson had to retire on lap 60 owing to an oil leak.
