Formula One news

Damage limitation for McLaren in Spain

The McLaren team is bracing itself for a challenging afternoon in Catalonia on Sunday after a difficult qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix. With most teams bringing with them a selection of updates to the first race of the European season, it is a distinct lack of downforce ensuring the silver arrows remain chiefly off the pace.

"Lewis in 14th and Heikki in 18th place is obviously a very disappointing result," admitted Mercedes Motorsport vice president Norbert Haug. "On the positive side, we have closed the gap to the quickest car from 2.5 seconds per lap at the last test, two months ago, to a little less than one second. We knew that the fast corners of this circuit would highlight the shortcomings of MP4-24, which is mainly a lack of overall downforce.

"It has taken us two months to cut our deficit in half - our aim now has to be to be fighting for race wins within the next two months." This comes as bad news to Lewis Hamilton fans in particular, though, as the British Grand Prix will be taking place in just six weeks' time, on 21 June.

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