Practice report

Formula 1 British GP

McLaren makes a confident start to the weekend

Jenson Button was seventh fastest in both sessions, while Kevin Magnussen finished 10th in FP1.

Edited: Jul 4, 2014, 10:39 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

In typical style, the Santander British Grand Prix kicked off to a packed house today. With the grandstands full, and the spectator terraces crammed, both Jenson and Kevin ran through a trouble-free set of free practice sessions, ironing out MP4-29’s understeer and improving its high-speed balance.

Jenson was seventh fastest in both sessions, while Kevin finished 10th in FP1, improving to eighth in the afternoon. Both drivers were satisfied with the car – but will continue working with their engineers long into the evening in order to refine the balance for qualifying tomorrow afternoon.

Jenson Button (FP1: 1m36.963s, 25 laps, 7th / FP2: 1m36.228s, 34 laps, 7th): “It’s fantastic to be out on the circuit for the first day of the Santander British Grand Prix. To be here on a sunny day, and with a full house, makes it even better, too.

“Our car felt okay today, but we’re still trying to find the right balance in the high-speed sections. We’re struggling with understeer, trying to get more front-end from the car.

“It’s tough out there because it’s so windy: this year’s cars have less downforce than before, which makes the wings very important. When they’re affected massively by the wind, it makes it difficult to get any productive back-to-back results during testing.

“It’s proving tricky for us to get the Prime tyre up to temperature, too; as soon as we back off for a yellow flag or for traffic, we can’t get it working again. It’s very difficult. However, the Option tyre looks good and is able to last for a reasonably long time.

“Nevertheless, it’s been a good day. Hopefully, we can put on a great show for all the fans this weekend.”

Kevin Magnussen (FP1: 1m37.231s, 30 laps, 10th / FP2: 1m36.299s, 35 laps, 8th): “This is a great racetrack – nice and fast. I think our car would probably be more competitive on a slower track, but, so far, it’s not been looking too bad – we’re not looking any less competitive than we did in Austria last month.

“After today, it’s still difficult to judge the pace of Williams, but we’ll probably be fighting the Force Indias. We could be up for some points this weekend, so getting the maximum of the car will be very important.

“Today’s sessions showed that the Prime is a very hard tyre to keep alive – it’s quite easy for it to lose temperature. At the moment, it looks like the Option tyre is the better race tyre for us.

“I love driving here, and I’m looking forward to enjoying the rest of the weekend.”

Eric Boullier - Racing director, McLaren Mercedes: “Firstly, it’s great to be racing in Great Britain, at our home race – and on a beautiful, if slightly blustery, summer’s day.

“Secondly, the track has never looked better. It’s taken a couple of years for the new configuration to establish itself, but, today, you could really see the fruits of the circuit staff’s labours – I think we’re set for a fascinating and gripping Santander British Grand Prix on Sunday.

“For McLaren Mercedes, this was a relatively straightforward practice day. We spent time in both sessions attempting to find a satisfactory way forward with the Hard tyre. We’re still not quite there, but the changes we made between sessions proved satisfactory, and we have a good base understanding to study tonight and take into tomorrow morning.

“Today didn’t give us a clear read on the competitive order, but I think we’ve made a confident start to the weekend. With changeable weather on the horizon for both Saturday and Sunday, we’ve made a good start to what could well be an unpredictable weekend.”

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

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article 2014 British Grand Prix Friday Press Conference

Next article Pirelli: Changeable weather possible for rest of the weekend

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Zane Smith fined $50,000 by NASCAR for ramming Carson Hocevar after Phoenix Cup race

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

5 h

Zane Smith fined $50,000 by NASCAR for ramming Carson Hocevar after Phoenix Cup race

FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

9 h

FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned

TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 9 h

TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return

Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

10 h

Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore

Feature

Discover prime content

Why Oscar Piastri has struggled to show his best with this year's McLaren MCL40

Formula 1

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Why Oscar Piastri has struggled to show his best with this year's McLaren MCL40

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Formula 1

By Pat Symonds

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Formula 1

By Kevin Turner

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

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