Formula One news

McLaren hoping for positive day

The McLaren-Mercedes team is hoping for a strong performance in China on Saturday, having finished first and fourth with Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen in Friday's first practice session. Despite later dropping back to ninth and thirteenth, a new diffuser and front wing has clearly resulted with an easier car to drive.

"The team, both at the track and back in the factory, has done a fantastic job to get these bodywork upgrades to Shanghai," said team principal Martin Whitmarsh. "Initial analysis would suggest that they have contributed to a slight uplift in our overall competitiveness; we are still working on the MP4-24's overall balance, but nonetheless concluded some productive tyre evaluation work.

Heading into final practice and qualifying later on today, could the team qualify in the top ten for the first time in 2009? "Seeing Lewis in P1 after back some good memories," admitted Mercedes' Norbert Haug. "We are aware that the team's package is not yet competitive but still, the improvements we have made to the car - which are particularly relentless at the moment - should see us making another encouraging step forward. The race will be greatly influenced by the performance over a stint of the Bridgestone Super Soft, but our consistency on both tyres looks quite okay."

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