McLaren eye another front-row lockout
Team boss Martin Whitmarsh has warned the rest of the pack that his outfit will be looking to make it another all McLaren front row in Malaysia this weekend. Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position ahead of team-mate Jenson Button on Saturday, but it was the latter who crossed the finish line first on Sunday while Hamilton settled for third place behind Sebastian Vettel. Although Red Bull team boss Christian Horner feels they were "right on the same pace as the McLarens and could have been faster" in Melbourne, Whitmarsh says his outfit also had some pace left in the bag. "Unquestionable we could have gone a little bit quicker," he is quoted as saying in The Guardian. "But we had a quick car here, we should have got a 1-2 and didn't but we're not too displeased. We'll see if we can do it again and take the front row in Malaysia." One person who will be looking to prove that he has plenty of race pace at the Sepang International Circuit is Hamilton after he went backwards off the starting line in Melbourne. "I don't like going backwards in my career. I went back two spaces here. I want to make sure in the next race I am going forwards," he said. "Championships are based on points and consistency, so it's something to work on. Overall, it was a strong weekend and I felt like I did quite well in the race, I just had a couple of unfortunate situations, which I could not do anything about." Whitmarsh is also convinced that Hamilton will bounce back in Malaysia. "Lewis isn't going to be happy after Australia and when he starts getting happy with being third, or beaten by his team-mate, then he won't be the Lewis we all love and admire," he said. "It wasn't a shocking start [by Lewis] because he wasn't losing places to the others but it wasn't as good as Jenson's. Unfortunately we pitted with both cars and immediately a safety car was called."
