The McLaren duo's thoughts on Monaco practice

by Jack Lamure on May 26th, 2011

After a day of mixing it at the top of the timesheets McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have been giving their thoughts on Thursday's practice sessions in Monaco. The Woking-based outfit's drivers appear right in the hunt for victory this weekend - so how did they feel day one went?

Lewis Hamilton

“It’s fantastic out there: I love the track, I love the weather. It’s a beautiful place to be. I’m enjoying every lap I drive – and I’ve got the best view of the whole of Monaco when I’m in the car!

“I’m very happy to be here – I’m really pleased with the balance of the car and I kept out of trouble, but it’s going to be close here.

“You quickly get used to DRS and KERS Hybrid, but you’re only really on it for the pit straight and up the hill; you tend not to use it through the slower sections. Maybe I’ll find a few more places to use it for qualifying – but I’ll keep that in my pocket!

“I just love driving the car here – it’s the best thing I’ve ever done! It’s so exciting – you can’t afford to make mistakes, the car feels amazing when you’re jumping from kerb to kerb, and there’s no room for error.

“I want to win this grand prix!”

Jenson Button

“First lap out is always a shock because it’s so slippery. But once the grip goes down, the car works well and it’s really fun to be out there.

“DRS and KERS Hybrid both work around here – I have no issues about deploying DRS, but I’m happy we can’t use it in the tunnel; the FIA definitely made the right decision there. I think we’ve also worked out where to best use KERS Hybrid.

“I feel more comfortable with the car than I did last year, but there are still a few areas that need tweaking. Our car feels reasonably quick, but there’s an awful lot of competition out there.

“There’s a lot less degradation than I think we all expected. I did a long-run on the Super-Soft, and while there’s some degradation, it’s reasonably good. The same is true of the harder tyre. But it’s still not easy to decide what strategy will work best around here on Sunday afternoon.