McLaren Malaysia qualifying 'disaster' has Martin Whitmarsh in a fury

It was an angry Martin Whitmarsh who flew out of Malaysia, demanding a higher level of performance in Shanghai on Sunday week. It was not that the McLaren team principal was disappointed with his drivers in race here. Lewis Hamilton produced another stunning drive, moving from 20th to 12th on the opening lap, and Jenson Button made up ground after a ponderous start. But because of the farce surrounding their qualifying effort on Saturday, they could manage only sixth and eighth and lost ground in the drivers' championship. McLaren and Ferrari were guilty of looking at each other as the rain started to fall, instead of concentrating on beating the weaker cars. Whitmarsh said: "Do I feel frustrated by the outcome? Of course. We have learned lessons. The primary one is that in Q1 [the first qualifying session] we are not racing Ferrari, the other big boys. We just need to get through to Q2 and cover the slow cars in those changeable conditions." With three poor teams among the 12, Hamilton and Button merely have to beat six cars, plus one another, to avoid being among the seven cars that are eliminated before the third qualifying round. Whitmarsh said: "We have to make sure we get it right in China. We have some more things coming through for the car which I believe will make us a few tenths quicker. If we develop the car quicker than our competitors we can win this championship. We are up in there. Red Bull look very strong – and they won't stand still – and so do Ferrari and Mercedes. "We have proven we are a good team at developing the car and we will push hard to do that. We put our hands up and said qualifying was a disaster for us. There is no point in being defensive about it, but we did go out before the guys who finished first and second. Jenson did qualify for Q2 before he went off. Our style is not to defend ourselves, it is to say the outcome was a disaster. Could we have got it better? Yes. "But if I played you through the weather radar and showed you what it showed us you would see why we did what we did. The mistake was that at this end of the pit lane we expect to be at the front in each session." Button feels encouraged that while he and Hamilton trail in the championship, it is still close. "It is early in the season, but it is incredibly tight," the reigning world champion said. "We have all evened out now. It is weird. It is like the season is starting. Nobody has got away. I lost some points to a few people like Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa and Sebastian Vettel, who is in front of me now, but we are still close. "There are a few issues I need to solve, but there is no team like this team for solving issues."