Martin Whitmarsh says Jenson Button could have won 2011 Belgium Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
McLaren principal Martin Whitmarsh has said that their driver Jenson Button could have won the 2011 Belgium Grand Prix, if he had started the race from the front row on the grid.
Whitmarsh added that Button did a fantastic job in Belgium, as he covered a gap after starting from the 13th place on the grid at Spa-Francorchamps.
Button lost the front wing during the race after a contact with Force India’s Adrian Sutil. After that, he dropped down to 19th. Despite that, he struggled for his best finish and ended his Grand Prix on the third stair of the podium.
Whitmarsh commented, “Jenson's was the drive of the day. Poor qualifying, if we could have got him up the front of the grid where he could and should have been he would have been a contender today. A fantastic drive, losing a front wing and then dropping
back to 19th, coming back through at the end and hunting down drivers like Fernando.”
He went on to mention, “And he was doing it in the dry, and people who say he can't do it in the dry, he did it today. We struggled to get the tyres in there initially, but the track came to us today and we were very strong.”
The McLaren principal further said that if Button had a good qualifying round at Spa circuit on Saturday, August 27, 2011, he could have managed a race victory on Sunday.
His teammate Lewis Hamilton retired from the race after completing 12 laps due to his contact with Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi.
After taking part in 12 rounds of the ongoing season, McLaren are still sitting at the second place with 295 points in the 2011 constructors’ championship.
The team driver Button is at the fourth place with 149 points in championship battle after finishing his race at the third place in the 2011 Belgium Grand Prix. His teammate Hamilton is at the fifth position behind Button with 146 points in drivers’ championship
at the moment.
Let’s see how both of the drivers manage their next race weekends of the ongoing season after getting the Belgian GP.
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