Button: Every race we go to we really do have a chance of winning
23 September, 2012
Jenson Button drenches Sebastian Vettel on the Singapore podium
Sep.23 (FIA) For most of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend Jenson Button’s teammate Lewis Hamilton stole the limelight, but when it mattered it was Button who brought home the points for McLaren and at the same time reversed the disappointment of his DNF at Monza with a well earned second place in a gruelling race at Marina Bay Street Circuit.
The pace seemed to be there at the start but not necessarily at the end.
JB: Yeah, the pace on the supersoft was good. I could look after the tyres pretty well – not that it did me any good anyway because after the pitstops they had a gap because they went to new tyres earlier than me, so it didn’t really work out. And on the harder of the two tyres, the balance wasn’t as good and I couldn’t really look after the tyres and degradation was reasonably high so, yeah, not too bad. Would have been nicer to have pushed Sebastian a bit harder: you never know around a street circuit when you push someone hard, so there was always the possibility that we could do one step better but it wasn’t to be; Sebastian didn’t make any mistakes and we came away with a second. Reasonably good points and it’s nice to get some good points back on the board after the DNF in Monza.
What happened at the re-start?
Jenson Button: Sebastian accelerated and braked for the right-hander and I just didn’t expect that, such a speed difference. So I hit the brakes, locked up and just missed the rear of his car, because that would have been quite embarrassing. But we got through it and yeah it’s a good second place. I’m reasonably happy with that. We all want to win, but you can’t win them all.
Does that second place make up in some small way for Monza?
JB: Yeah it does, but for us as a team to have another failure this weekend is disappointing. The important thing for us is we have a very good car. I think the team are doing a fantastic job and it seems that every race we go to we really do have a chance of winning so that’s important to us.
After Lewis’ retirement was there any concern in terms of reliability, or did they not tell you that?
JB: No, they didn’t say anything. I’m guessing it was a gearbox problem. For about three or four laps it was spraying gearbox oil. I thought it was the backmarker at the time, and then I saw Lewis pull over so I knew that [it] was from his car. It’s disappointing for the team to have another DNF – two weekends on the trot. It’s something that we need to sort out because as a team over the race weekends we’re doing a great job and the pace is there with the car. Over the last few races the results we’ve had have been very good but it’s just we can’t seem to do that with both cars. It’s something for sure we need to work on for the rest of the season.
Subbed by AJN.
Related posts:
- Button: Every time I jump into the car I know we have a chance of winning
- Button: There were some frustrating moments
- Singapore GP post race press conference
- Button: Fans will watch even if title race over
- Alonso: I think we have the chance to do well
