Pacific GP McLaren notes

Sunday 23rd Ocotber 1995 Pacific Grand Prix

The Marlboro McLaren Mercedes team ended the 1995 Pacific Grand Prix with Mark Blundell finishing in 9th position and Jan Magnussen securing a place in the top ten for his first Formula One race - the young Dane not having put a foot wrong all weekend. The race was characterised by a very high number of pit stops as most teams, incluing Marlboro McLaren Mercedes, had elected to run a three stops strategy.

Mark Blundell: "I had a good start, making up one position by overtaking Panis, but we did not have the pace from the car to stay with Irvine and Frentzen. My first and second set of tyres were ok but my last set was poor and I did not have any grip at all from them. At the same time I also had a problem with the drink machine which only started late in the race and filled my helmet which went into my eyes and made it difficult to see properly. So overall it was not particularly good race."

Jan Magnussen: "It's great for me not only to finish race, but also to make it to the top ten. I had a good fight with Barrichello at the beginning of the race and then towards the end I was closing up on Mark. Even if I had caught him I would not have overtaken though because I did not want to take unnecessary risks."

Norbert Haug: "The positive part of our Aida story is that both cars finished. The negative part is that we are definitely too slow and will have to work very hard duing the winter. Jan was very impressive. In his first Grand Prix, he proved to be a real racer, setting the best lap times and being quick coming in and out for each of his three pit stops."

Ron Dennis: "Most teams have a lot of work to do for the next year as can be seen by the domination of the leading cars. We are certainly amongst them and we will work hard on the challenge. Jan did an exceptionally good race for his first Grand Prix and I'm sure he is as pleased with his own performance as we are."