Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso encouraged by McLaren progress

Alonso eighth fastest in Friday Practice at Budapest; "The car was fun to drive" says Jenson

By Pete Gill at the Hungaroring

Image: Jenson Button's McLaren MP4-30 fitted with an aero sensor during Practice One

Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were encouraged by McLaren’s respectable performance in practice for the Hungarian GP.

Alonso and Button finished eighth and 12th respectively in the timesheets, offering a glimmer of hope that both cars could make it through to Qualifying Two on Saturday at a circuit where Saturday’s results are particularly important due to the notoriously tight of confines of the Hungaroring.

“I enjoyed the car, it was fun to drive. The last time it felt like this was Monaco so that is promising,” said Button. “It was a good base”.

Towards the conclusion of Practice Two Button was heard to tell his race engineer that “I could be quicker but you know why l can’t.” 

Speaking to reporters after the session, he assured reporters there was nothing sinister to his message and he was only stymied by a familiar foe at the tight and twisty Hungaroring.

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“I was saving fuel because this is quite a high fuel-saving circuit,” the former world champion clarified.

Image: Fernando Alonso ran in the top 10 during Friday practice

Along with Button, Alonso has only scored points in one race this season and said on Thursday that it was critical that McLaren began to provide tangible signs of progress in the upcoming races. While guarded about McLaren’s chances of staying in the top 10 at the business end of the weekend, the Spaniard was pleased with the MP4-30’s showing on Friday.

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"l am happy with the performance of the car. It was a trouble-free Friday and we completed our programme without any issues so it was a positive start. But the important thing is qualifying because overtaking is so difficult and the weekend is long," said Alonso.

“We need to see how competitive we are tomorrow and if we can finish Sunday’s race to hopefully score some points.

“We have seen on Fridays that some people don’t show their potential – we have seen Williams run heavy and slow on Friday and then on Saturday they are competitive, and Force India didn’t run today in P2 – so there are some cars which will potentially be in front of us on Saturday.”

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