Jenson Button says that he feels encouraged by the fact that he could race the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado during last Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix and is hopeful of more improvement during this weekend’s race in Bahrain. Button collided with the rear of Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus while attempting an overtake into Turn 1, spinning the Venezuelan around and damaging his McLaren’s front wing in the process. While both were able to continue, Maldonado retired shortly after with a brake issue brought on by the impact while Jenson finished the race in 14th. He was later given a time penalty and two points on his licence for the incident.

Jenson later apologised for the misjudgment but said he feels the strengths of the McLaren MP4/30 became more evident due to the battle:

“The incident with Maldonado towards the end of the race in China was unfortunate and a simple misjudgement on my part as we braked into the corner. Nevertheless, until that point our battle was a lot of fun and it was very encouraging that we were able to take the fight to the Lotus in the corners, even though on the straights it was much more challenging.

“China was a tricky race for us although we did see a lot of positives. There’s been a definite step forward at each race so far, although sadly this didn’t translate into the gains on track that we’d hoped for during the race, so we’re busy working out the reasons for that and will channel that into set up preparation for this weekend.

Eric Boullier believes McLaren are facing a barren weekend again in Bahrain, as he explained in the team’s preview for the race: “It won’t be an easy track for our car given its high-speed nature, and since it takes place just one week after China, it proves tricky to bring any major developments to the car. Nevertheless, we have seen definite progress over each race weekend so far, and we expect it to be no different in Bahrain.”

Jenson was similarly realistic about the team’s prospects: “Although our car isn’t suited so well to this track layout, we’ll still be pushing to continue our development as we look forward to the start of the European season and hopefully more gains in performance.”

Fernando Alonso was upbeat after completing his first race distance in China, and says that every lap completed is another lap of learning for the team. He’s not expecting major results in Bahrain and re-iterated his colleague’s belief that Sakhir will not play to the strengths of their car: “This will be a challenging track for our car, for sure, but our first aim is to finish the race and take away as much data as possible to prepare ourselves for Barcelona onwards. We are certainly seeing progress all the time and the car feels great to drive, so we have a good base to keep developing. I’m looking forward to seeing what this race brings and getting the most from the weekend in every session.”

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