McLaren’s Jenson Button blames Red Bull’s ‘confused’ Sebastian Vettel for crash at Belgian GP
The reigning Formula One World Drivers’ Champion Jenson Button says that it was the confused overtaking manoeuvres by Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel that caused the crash. Vettel ran into Button’s car at the Belgian Grand Prix, and as a result ended Button’s race.
Sebastian Vettel, driving his Red Bull car, lost control on the 16th lap and slammed into the McLaren of Jenson Button. Vettel was trying to make his way past Button, but the world champion tried to fight for his place and made it difficult for the German. Vettel continued to press on and in the end tried a dangerous manoeuvre and ended Button’s race.
Button said that he was defending his line and he was around 3 inches inside; he added that Vettel could not decide which side to choose in an effort to move ahead, and as a result was confused.
After the race, Vettel was apologetic and said that he was extremely sorry about the incident, and he did not intend to end his or Button’s race. After that, the German driver was handed a drive-through penalty for his troubles. Later on, he encountered problems with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi that resulted in him finishing only on the 15th place.
Jenson Button, who is tipped to be one of the candidates for the world title this season, failed to score any points in the race. He now trails his teammate Lewis McLaren by 35 points (he is at the 4th place in the season standing with 147 points). The Brit said that the result of the race had put a massive dent in his title chances, and said that he would have to work extra hard in the last 6 races to have any chance of retaining his title.
The 30-year old driver had made a good start to the race, and took full advantage of Mark Webber making a sluggish start. He started from the 5th place on the grid and made it to 3rd just behind his teammate Lewis Hamilton. He then went past Renault’s Robert Kubica to make it a McLaren 1-2 at the top of the race.
It was not only Vettel who caused problems for Button in the race; his front wing also sustained some damage in the 13th lap. That was the reason he was not in complete control of his car and allowed Sebastian Vettel to close in and trouble him with his overtaking manoeuvres.
Jenson, on his way to the Bus Stop chicane, was looking strong to hold on to his spot, but Sebastian Vettel was not willing to give up, and in an effort to leap ahead, lost control of his RB6 and smashed into Jenson Button’s McLaren.
The former Brawn GP driver said that what happened in Belgium was more evidence of the immaturity of Vettel. He said that such errors are very costly not just for him, but for others as proved by the results. He said that it was just an unfortunate incident and had it not happened, he would have been able to get at least the 2nd place.
Sebastian Vettel also had an infamous accident with his teammate Mark Webber at the Turkish Grand Prix. The incident left Vettel eliminated from the race, and Webber lost his pole position and ended up getting the 3rd spot. After the race, Vettel said that it was not his fault and refused to admit that he could have done better. However, on this occasion, he did accept that he could have done much better and it was his carelessness that cost Button the race.
The German said that he was much faster than Jenson Button, and knew that he would not make it easy to get ahead. Vettel said that at first, he tried to go on the outside to make his move, but Button blocked him and from then on he just lost control.
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