McLaren famously ran into difficulties in 2007 when Hamilton was partnered with double champion Fernando Alonso.

But team boss Martin Whitmarsh said: “We’ll be able to manage the demands and expectations of our drivers.

“They know what it takes to win and I’m sure they’ll both be very motivated to push each other to greater results.”
Alonso left McLaren at the end of 2007, one year into a three-year contract after his relationship with the team broke down irretrievably.
Button has joined McLaren after winning the world championship with Brawn, who have now been bought by Mercedes.

That means McLaren will be the first team to start a season with the last two world champions as their drivers.
But Whitmarsh described having to balance their demands as “a very nice problem to have”.
“It’s a proposition that some teams might find troubling, but which we are absolutely relishing,” he said.

“I think we’re very lucky in that, with Jenson and Lewis, we have two fiercely competitive individuals who both fully understand the benefit of teamwork.
“Jenson did a fantastic job at Brawn GP last year – not just from a technical standpoint, but also from a motivational point of view – as did the whole team, and full credit to them.
“Similarly, Lewis has done an incredible amount in a very short space of time to earn the trust and respect of everyone in this organisation.
“They’re both phenomenal team players. And my job is to manage that racer’s instinct.
“They are there to race each other – and the only instruction they’ll receive from me is to respect each other on the track. But that’s it – other than that, they’re free to race.”
Hamilton and Button have very different driving styles, and it has been suggested that inevitably one will therefore end up being advantaged over the other.
But managing director Jonathan Neale rejected those concerns.
“I’m absolutely convinced that they’ll be a fantastic and competitive partnership,” Neale said.

More dynamism, more style
The new generation A-Class features an array of subtle design touches that lift the car to another level of dynamism and style.

The tail light cluster has been redesigned and the headlamps reshaped, giving the car a broader appearance. We’ve created a new-look front apron with a more angular, sporty-looking air intake, and reworked the radiator grille. In fact, each model line now has its own distinctive grille louvres.

In addition, we’ve made the bonnet slightly shorter and steeper. In combination with the large, sloping windscreen, this adds drama to the car’s signature sweeping shoulder line.

Other details depend on the model line you choose. For example, the Elegance SE is fitted with stunning 16” 10-twin-spoke alloy wheels while the Avantgarde SE features a more athletic 5-spoke design.

It’s all about quality
Take a seat in the new A-Class and you’ll be struck by the sheer quality of materials and the impeccable interior finish.

All-new high-grade seat fabrics are hard-wearing, tactile and stylish. The new door panels are durable and solid, with a pleasingly simple aesthetic design. The seat cushion design has been improved for maximum comfort.

What’s more, each new model line features its own distinctive trim elements – for example, Smoke Grey brushed aluminium for the Avantgarde.

It all adds up to a luxurious, premium-quality driving experience – as you’d expect from a Mercedes-Benz.

A joy to use
In developing the new A-Class, we placed enormous emphasis on convenience and practicality.

Despite its compact exterior appearance, the car’s interior is surprisingly roomy with ergonomic design throughout. Every button and control is within easy reach and the raised driving position ensures good visibility. Passengers also enjoy raised seating with outstanding shoulder and legroom.

In addition, the new A-Class boasts a maximum boot capacity of 535 litres behind the rear seat and 1,370 litres behind the driver’s seat – plenty of space for shopping or luggage. Stowing or retrieving your belongings couldn’t be easier, thanks to the tailgate’s smart design with extra wide opening.

Optimising performance
In order to enhance performance and reduce fuel consumption, we worked hard on improving the aerodynamics of the new A-Class.

This involved a number of tweaks to the car’s already outstanding design. For example, optimising the spoiler lip in the tailgate and reshaping the front and rear aprons and wheel arches. We even reworked the exterior mirror design and mounting.

Anything that could be done to reduce drag – even by a tiny amount – has been incorporated into the new A-Class. The result is an outstanding drag coefficient of 0.29 to 0.31* – giving reduced fuel consumption and improved performance.

Under the S4’s hood is the 3.0litre supercharged V6 333bhp, if there ever has been a modern car that proves to be much more than the sum of its parts, the S4 is it. In a word, it is probably the most dynamically enjoyable Audi. The engine is combined with the S Tronic gearbox. 440 newtons are made at 2900rpm, the supercharged V6 develops a lot of it before peak. This couple with the direct throttle response, makes for 0 – 100km/h reached in 5.4 seconds. It feels much faster because of the unending stream of torque delivered.

The S4 has the usual quattro all wheel drive system which shunts torque to and fro, in default driving conditions the torque is split 40:60 front and rear. The S4 has mostly neutral handling character which manifests into under steer the closer you are to the limit. Instead of locking the wheels together like a limited-slip differential, it actually sends torque to the outside rear wheel while cornering, depending on parameters like speed and steering angle.

The cabin is tranquil, disturbed only by some minor tyre noise when you let the V6 off its leash, it has one of the best interiors around, attractively laid out and luxuriously appointed.

MCLAREN Mercedes team bosses have applauded Lewis Hamilton’s fantastic drive in Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

After starting from a lowly 17th on the grid, the 24-year-old from Herts snatched the third step on the Interlagos podium.

And Hamilton, the 2008 Formula 1 world champion, could even have won the race had he not had a disastrous qualifying session in the rain the day before.

After watching Brawn GP’s Jenson Button claim the F1 world title from his man, McLaren Mercedes team principal Martin Whitmarsh said: “Passing the champion’s baton to Jenson is of course Lewis, who performed as brilliantly as ever today.

We altered his strategy as a result of the deployment of the safety car, after which he drove a fantastic race from 17th on the grid to third at the flag.

“Had he not been stuck in traffic for a few key periods of the race, he may have finished even higher up the field.

“Certainly, his race pace was very strong.”

Norbert Haug, vice-president of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, went as far as saying the Herts-born racer could have taken the Brazilian chequered flag.

He said: “Lewis drove a fantastic race from 17th on the grid onto the podium, and this certainly was the best climbing up the ranks during all the 16 races this season.

He said: “Lewis drove a fantastic race from 17th on the grid onto the podium, and this certainly was the best climbing up the ranks during all the 16 races this season.

“I’m totally convinced that he could have fought for victory today [Sunday] if he had started from the first two rows of the grid, which originally had been our plan.”

The final race of the season is the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 1.

Lewis Hamilton wins the Singapore grand prix. Photograph: Clive Mason/Getty Images

The Guardian

Even by Lewis Hamilton’s exacting standards it was the perfect job. His drive to victory in yesterday’s Singapore grand prix had the stamp of coolly controlled genius on it. Apart from being briefly headed during the flurry of routine pit stops that are part and parcel of the Formula One tapestry the reigning world champion, who is too far behind to retain his title, dominated the race from pole position to the chequered flag under the glittering floodlights, winning by 9.6sec from Timo Glock’s Toyota and the Renault of last year’s winner, Fernando Alonso.

Brawn’s championship rivals, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, finished fifth and sixth, a few lengths apart, to round off a stressful weekend with Button now 15 points ahead of his Brazilian colleague with three races left, giving a maximum for any driver of 30 points to race for. But Hamilton reminded Button that he had been 17 points ahead with two races to go in 2007 and lost the title. “My advice to him is to continue pressing hard all the way to the finish,” he said.

This was the 11th career victory for Hamilton and his second of the 2009 season, clearly giving him huge satisfaction to have performed with such a blend of speed and precision on the challenging Marina Bay circuit, where even a slight slip can result in smart contact with the unyielding concrete walls, as several other drivers found out.

“I had to do all I could to look after my tyres today,” he said. “It was a very tough race, I think I can speak for all of us. But it was seriously straightforward for me, a nicely controlled race. I knew I was running five laps longer than Sebastian [Vettel] when he was running behind me.

“My only slight problem came when the team came on the radio saying there might have been a problem with the KERS [energy regeneration] system but I wasn’t seeing that. We made some adjustments, pressed some buttons and re-booted the system and it worked well.

“It’s corner after corner after corner on this track, so it is hugely demanding. I came here hoping to redeem myself after the last race [crashing on the last lap at Monza] and I think I did, we did. I looked after my tyres and it all went well.”

Alonso loyally dedicated his best finish of the season to Flavio Briatore, the former Renault team principal who was banned from the sport by the FIA after his involvement in the so-called ‘Crashgate’ scandal. “It was fantastic, obviously great to get our first podium finish of the year,” said the Spaniard.

“The team has been fantastic; the mechanics, engineers and everybody did a great effort. Now we have put the troubles behind us but I would like to dedicate this podium to Flavio because it has a lot to do with him as well. We made no mistakes, kept 100% concentration throughout and, although we didn’t have the pace, I felt we could get a podium if we kept out of trouble and we did the job.”

As for the championship leader Button, this was a damage-limitation exercise after qualifying a distant 12th, a performance that left him looking uncharacteristically dejected and downbeat.

The Brawn driver has generally displayed admirable resilience when it has come to dealing with the fluctuating fortunes he has experienced this year but now his head dropped. After a slightly baffling mid-season dip Button’s second place at Monza a fortnight ago convinced him that he had turned the corner and was firmly back on track with his championship challenge. Yet instead of reinventing himself for a sprint to the title crown, missing the top-10 cut in Singapore consigned him once more to jostling for scraps from the table, picking up a point here and a point there as he and Barrichello limp towards the season’s finishing line in Abu Dhabi on 1 November.

In contrast Hamilton drove superbly to plant his McLaren-Mercedes on pole position even though the car had to be rebuilt on Friday night around a new chassis after a complex failure was suspected deep within the car’s electrical wiring.

This was a fiddly and time-consuming job for the McLaren mechanics, who toiled through the long hours of darkness in the extreme humidity, having only the briefest of breaks for a shower and some food on Saturday morning before heading back to the circuit to prepare the car for qualifying.

At the start Hamilton repaid their dogged efforts superbly. Taking full advantage of the extra burst of power available from his car’s KERS system, he rocketed cleanly away from pole position to lead Nico Rosberg’s Williams by 10 lengths by the time they reached the first corner.

In the opening stages Rosberg did a great job following Hamilton but the German driver’s hopes of a strong result evaporated after he incurred a drive-through penalty for running over the white line at the end of the pits while returning to the race after his first refuelling stop, dropping him to the back of the field.

After Rosberg faded, Vettel took up the challenge, piling on the pressure with his Red Bull Renault, but Hamilton, secure in the knowledge of more fuel, sufficient to keep him out five laps further than hisGerman rival, refused to be ruffled and drove just as fast as was necessary to keep ahead without unduly straining his McLaren.

It was textbook stuff and Vettel, even before he took a penalty for speeding in the pit lane, had no answer.

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Monaco Grand Prix Travel

Lewis Hamilton, the reigning Formula One drivers’ champion, and Jenson Button, the current championship leader, both crashed out of the Belgian Grand Prix on the opening lap.

Button lost control of his Brawn GP and spun out after he appeared to be clipped at Les Combes corner by Renault’s Romain Grosjean, who also left the track.

Hamilton’s McLaren Mercedes also received a bump from Jaime Alguersuari of Toro Rosso and both went off at the same bend.

Button, who started from 14th on the grid, currently leads the championship by 18 points, and this is the first time this season that he will have failed to pick up any points. Hamilton started in 12th position.

“I didn’t know what happened, but I got hit from behind,” Button said.

“It didn’t matter anyway because we weren’t competitive here.”

With the safety car coming in after a couple of laps the race was restarted and led by surprise pole sitter Gianfranco Fisichella of Force India with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in second.

“I didn’t know what happened, but I got hit from behind,” Button said.

“It didn’t matter anyway because we weren’t competitive here.”

With the safety car coming in after a couple of laps the race was restarted and led by surprise pole sitter Gianfranco Fisichella of Force India with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in second.

An extraordinary pit-lane blunder by McLaren cost Lewis Hamilton a second successive victory as Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello took the chequered flag at today’s European grand prix in Valencia.

Hamilton, who began in pole, was leading the Brazilian by around four seconds before his second stop on lap 37 but his afternoon came unstuck when McLaren’s mechanics failed to have a new set of tyres ready.

The incident cost Hamilton around six seconds and allowed the hard-charging Barrichello through for his first victory since the 2004 Chinese grand prix.

An excellent day for Brawn was made better by Jenson Button’s damage-limiting drive to seventh, ahead of his nearest rival in the drivers’ standings heading into this weekend, Red Bull’s Mark Webber, who finished outside the points in ninth. Webber’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel suffered an engine failure for the second day in succession to bring a premature end to his afternoon, and Brawn come away from Spain looking in a stronger position than ever to claim both world titles.

Button’s lead in the drivers’ championship is now 18 points over Barrichello, while Webber is now 20.5 points back and Vettel 25. Brawn are 27.5 points clear of Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen produced a solid drive for third place from sixth on the grid while McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen failed to capitalise on his front-row start as he came home fourth.

Nico Rosberg of Williams produced a characteristically consistent drive to finish fifth ahead of Renault’s Fernando Alonso, while Robert Kubica of BMW Sauber took eighth and the final point.

But the day belonged to Barrichello, who celebrated his 10th career win with characteristic emotion on the podium. “It’s been fantastic,” said the veteran of 281 grands prix. “It’s been a weekend that I will never forget, especially because after five years, it’s tough.”

Hamilton, meanwhile, refused to blame his team for the pit-lane error that cost him a shot at victory. “We win and lose together,” he said.

“We had a great team effort to get here, so we cannot at all take second place for grated, or be disappointed that we did not get a win. I still believe it was a tremendous effort, and these things happen