Practice report
Formula 1
A productive Friday practice for McLaren in Abu Dhabi
Martin Whitmarsh: “After our encouraging performance in India last week, it appears that we’ve been able to carry that momentum forwards to this weekend.
Published: Nov 1, 2013, 6:55 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Sergio Perez (FP1: 1m45.331s, 20 laps, 10th / FP2: 1m42.006s , 36 laps, 6th): “This was a productive day for the whole team – I felt really comfortable with the car in both sessions, and really enjoyed my time on the track today.
Sergio Perez, McLaren MP4-28
Photo by: XPB Images
“I feel happy with my car, and I don’t expect to change too much. Normally, we change quite a lot on the car between Friday and Saturday in order to refine the balance and set-up, but I don’t think we’ll be doing too much of that tonight.
“The Option tyre is performing quite a lot better than it was in India. While I think we feel more comfortable with the softer tyre, it’ll still be difficult to make a one-stop strategy work on Sunday. Tomorrow, I’d like to see us get into Q3.”
Jenson Button (FP1: 1m45.099s, 20 laps, 8th / FP2: 1m42.010s, 31 laps, 7th): “It was a pretty good day in terms of understanding the car. Our direction with the set-up looks reasonably good, too.
I also think both tyres are working reasonably well around here. I got my fastest lap on my first attempt on the Option tyre, which most people didn’t, so I’m quite happy about that.
“My long runs proved quite tricky, however – first, because of traffic, and, second, because I was delayed by an issue that we initially thought was a puncture but that actually turned out to be a sensor failure.
As a result, I had to drive slowly back to the pits, after which I lost a lot of track time because we had to replace some parts on the car that had got a bit warm during that slow lap. Still, all in all, I think we’re in reasonable shape here.”
Martin Whitmarsh, Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes: “After our encouraging performance in India last week, it appears that we’ve been able to carry that momentum forwards to this weekend.
“Both Jenson and Checo enjoyed productive sessions: while our focus this afternoon was once again on understanding and developing concepts and components for 2014, the evening’s session quickly proved productive as we progressed through our set-up and tyre evaluation work.
Despite a sensor failure for Jenson – which prompted us to believe that he’d suffered a puncture – both drivers got a decent amount of mileage under their belts and reported that the car was behaving well around this circuit.
For tomorrow, we feel we already have a useful understanding of the car, but we’ll be looking to further refine that ahead of the qualifying session.”
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article No big issues for Red Bull on Friday practice at Yas Marina Circuit
Next article Incident free Friday for Sauber at Abu Dhab
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jenson Button
The greatest F1 campaigns with no wins
Formula 1
The greatest F1 campaigns with no wins
Fernando Alonso earns Michael Schumacher comparison from Jenson Button
Formula 1
Formula 1
Italian GP
Fernando Alonso earns Michael Schumacher comparison from Jenson Button
Who belongs on F1's Mount Rushmore? Pick your four greatest drivers
Formula 1
Formula 1
Who belongs on F1's Mount Rushmore? Pick your four greatest drivers
More from
Mercedes
Franco Colapinto, George Russell to sit out FP1 at F1 Mexico GP
Formula 1
Formula 1
United States GP
22 h
Franco Colapinto, George Russell to sit out FP1 at F1 Mexico GP
Toto Wolff dismisses Helmut Marko's Russell theory: "He still has what it takes"
Formula 1
Formula 1
United States GP
Toto Wolff dismisses Helmut Marko's Russell theory: "He still has what it takes"
Latest news
Oliver Bearman explains why Haas’ 2026 F1 car is ‘hitting its ceiling’
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
1 h
Oliver Bearman explains why Haas’ 2026 F1 car is ‘hitting its ceiling’
Toprak Razgatlioglu going through a "difficult time" after shoulder surgery
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
2 h
Toprak Razgatlioglu going through a "difficult time" after shoulder surgery
Yet another DNF for Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas: ‘Sometimes we don’t quite understand it’
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
2 h
Yet another DNF for Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas: ‘Sometimes we don’t quite understand it’
Diogo Moreira: “From what we saw in the Austria test, Honda could fight for MotoGP title next year”
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP 3 h
Diogo Moreira: “From what we saw in the Austria test, Honda could fight for MotoGP title next year”
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe