Jenson Button upbeat about the MP4-26’s performance, says 2011 season same as 2010 – Formula 1
Jenson Button of McLaren-Mercedes, despite having a drive-thru penalty, finished the Australian Grand Prix in sixth place. Button said that although the results were not the ones he desired, finishing sixth is still a step forward towards the championship.
He further added that the 2011 season will be the same as the 2010 season and the top three teams will strive for victory.
Jenson Button was penalised after he successfully completed an over taking manoeuvre against Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. After Massa’s team complained about the overtake, race stewards reviewed the footage and found that Button was off the track during the
manoeuvre, hence he was forced to drive-thru the pit lanes, which increased his gap from the race leader by 25 seconds. Talking about the incident, Button said, “He [Massa] was moving about a bit trying to keep me behind - on the whole he did a good job of
defending, but it got a bit frustrating because it was pretty clear that I was faster than him.” Button further commented on the race finish and was still satisfied because he was able to land ahead of Massa on the points table.
McLaren were well out of the championship contender list when their car was declared the least reliable car of the 2011 season in the pre-season testing sessions. But as they moved to Melbourne, MP4-26 was a different package all together and they were the
only team challenging the roaring Red Bulls. Talking about the MP4-26, Button seemed very content, and he described the improvements his team was able to pull off after the pre-season testing session.
Commenting on the Australian Grand Prix, Button explained that Red Bull is clearly very fast. He also stated that Ferrari will not give easy ground to Red Bull in the following races. He mentioned that Red Bull’s car was not as fast as it was in the pre-season
tests. “All in all, it's looking like a continuation of the battle between the three top teams that we saw last year, which will be great for the sport and the fans,” the British driver said.
The next race will be held in Malaysia on the 11th of April. All teams will be looking to take over from the reighning champions Red Bull.
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