Jenson Button brings points back to McLaren

If McLaren’s situation is not yet ideal, it is nonetheless gradually improving. Thus, after the points from Bahrain and Sochi, McLaren is once again able to break into the top 10, synonymous with new points in the constructors’ championship.

This time, it was Jenson Button who brought back the two points for ninth place. He took advantage of a very good start even though he was twelfth on the grid: « I had a great start. It was surely the best take-off of the field! »

But the McLaren driver then struggled throughout the race due to a lack of grip from his car. While he was fighting with Fernando Alonso for a long time, he had to be wary at the end of the race of Daniil Kvyat’s comeback: “It was not an easy race for me. I never had any grip. Whatever we did, we struggled. But at the end of the race, the leaders were not very fast either, which complicated things for me to manage the situation because Dany was just behind Seb and Ricci Bobby (Daniel Ricciardo) and he had fresher tires. Fortunately, I was just quick enough to stay ahead of these cars and he couldn’t overtake me.”

If Jenson Button was satisfied with his start, the same cannot be said for Fernando Alonso, who couldn’t take advantage of his first Q3 with McLaren Honda since his start was far from ideal: “My car was behaving well this afternoon but I didn’t manage to make a good start, and I lost everything. My race was practically over after the first corner.”

While he started two places ahead of his teammate, he found himself behind him. What followed was a long battle between the two drivers, which lasted most of the race: « After that, I followed Jenson for 50 laps and had traffic throughout the race. So I didn’t get many clear laps and was never able to show my true pace. »

As it was written that nothing would go well for the Spanish driver in front of his home crowd, his engine then stopped, without the team truly knowing why. Work will therefore continue in the coming weeks…