- Italian GP - Qualifying
McLaren drivers surprised by third row lockout
Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button both admitted they were braced for a place lower down the grid before McLaren locked out the third row for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix.
McLaren has shown renewed pace all weekend but was locked in a fight with Ferrari and Red Bull for the positions behind Mercedes and Williams out in front. Magnussen leapt into fifth with his last lap after the clock had expired and he said it was a positive result.
"I didn't think our qualifying pace would be that strong," Magnussen said."I have a feeling that our race pace is quite good so to start P5 and P6 is good. I'm really happy to have Mercedes power on such long straights. Hopefully we can challenge the other guys with Mercedes engines.
"We're fighting with Williams although they are some way in front of us. We have a car that is good to race with in terms of straight line speed and [being] good under braking."
Button, who will line up in sixth, agreed with the assessment of his team-mate but admitted he is not sure how McLaren's race pace will compare to qualifying.
"Fifth and sixth, I don't think that's too bad for us at all," Button said. "Third best team on one lap pace, and we will see if that's the case in the race but I think we'll be more competitive then. I was surprised at how quick the Williams were. That was probably one car we didn't expect to be that far in front of us. But yeah, it was all good. The middle sector, through the Lesmos, wasn't very clean so I lost a bit of time.
"Fifth and sixth is one lap pace though and we hope that we're close to that in the race as well. I don't know though, as on Friday the long runs were a little bit trickier than the short runs but we'll see what we can do."
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