Jenson Button concerned over the Singapore Grand Prix
McLaren’s Jenson Button is worried that the team might struggle for pace at the Singapore Grand Prix next weekend but believes that since his car worked perfectly in the previous races this season, it should work even better on a slower track.
“The last time we were at a low-speed, high-downforce track was in Hungary back at the start of August. Our car wasn't particularly competitive there, and maybe we haven't had a properly representative view of the top teams' relative pace because we've just
visited two high-speed circuits,” he said.
Jenson did not have a good start to the 2010 season, as he was able to finish in the 7th place at the opening grand prix at Bahrain. Button won the following race and proved that he has not lost his touch at the Albert Park circuit in Australia.
The Malaysian grand prix was quite a challenge for the British as he managed to finish in 8th place to score just 4 points. Jenson sparked again a couple of weeks later at the Chinese grand prix and won the race followed by a 5th place
at the Spanish grand prix.
The Monaco Grand Prix at Monte Carlo turned out to be a disaster for Jenson, as he had to retire after an engine problem and McLaren’s rival team Red Bull, was able to pull off an outstanding one-two. Button managed to finish 2nd on the podium
at the Turkish grand prix and replicated the same result a couple of weeks later at the Canadian Grand Prix before finishing in 3rd place on the podium at the European grand prix. Jenson finished in 4th place at his home race in Britain
after this, to score 12 points before heading to Germany and getting a decent 5th place.
McLaren seemed to struggle at the Hungarian Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton was not able to finish the race while Jenson was just able secure the 8th place. The Championship at this point became quite exciting as the top 5 drivers’ were still chasing
the title at this point before heading to a 4 weeks break. The season continued at the Spa Francorchamps in Belgium where Button had to face his second retirement of the season. This was devastating for the British, as it seemed that his championship hopes
were going down the drain but Jenson managed to score the 2nd place behind Fernando Alonso at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza and now, it seems that we are back to where we started.
The top 5 drivers’ in the drivers’ standings are separated by just 24 points. Lewis Hamilton lost his championship lead after the Italian Grand Prix as he retired after his steering failed due to his collision with Massa’s rear tyre. Jenson Button is currently
in 4th place in the drivers’ standings 2 points ahead of Sebastian Vettel and a single point behind Fernando Alonso while Lewis Hamilton is just 5 points behind the leader Mark Webber.
However, the current world champion thinks that there have been many changes since the race at Budapest and some quite hefty revisions were carried out regarding the bodywork flexibility to help the engineers to ensure that they have a better car for slower
tracks.
Lewis Hamilton said the teams’ engineers have assured him that the car will be on the spot or at least as good as the other cars.
“It's difficult to say accurately how competitive we'll be in Singapore”, he said.
Lewis believes that the just like the Monza circuit resembles the Canadian track, Singapore can be compared with places like Monaco and Hungary, the two tracks the team struggled on as compared to the rest of the races. However, the engineers seem confident
with the progress that they have made and the former champion is looking forward to race on the track and experience the improvements.
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