Formula One news

'Dramatic improvement needed' - Haug

Norbert Haug has confirmed that the McLaren team still has a lot of work to do if it is going to be competitive this season. The two drivers were fourteenth and fifteenth on the grid after qualifying, which soon became fourteenth and twentieth as Lewis Hamilton was dropped five places for a gearbox change.

"Heikki (Kovalainen) did a solid job and made best use of the pace offered by the car," Haug said after the session. "It's a shame that Lewis suffered a gearbox problem when he was on his best lap so far; it should not have happened, and there was no such problem over more than 7,000 kilometres of testing. Our speed was obviously not great, although Kimi (Räikkönen) and Nick (Heidfeld) - who were also both running KERS - were 0.35s and 0.25s ahead of us, and Fernando (Alonso) is no more than 0.15s away.

"But of course, we have to continue to improve dramatically. Congratulations to Brawn GP for a superb debut - we are especially happy that our Mercedes-Benz engine powers the whole front row." The German manufacturer is also powering the Force India cars, which line up alongside each other on row eight.

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