McLaren, Button fights like a lion (on par with the others)

While on Fernando Alonso's side of the garage the faces are dark and thoughts are heavy, in McLaren the environment on Jenson Button's side is much more relaxed. The Englishman was one of the best drivers on the track at the Yas Marina weekend, fighting for the fifty-five laps of the Abu Dhabi GP with a knife between his teeth and discovering lap after lap a McLaren-Honda MP4-30 (at least) all height of the mid-table cars.

JB put in the rest, with his experience and his foot as heavy as it is elegant. Race and tire management certainly not like a twelfth position driver, yet even a checkered flag that in other times would have been narrow is worth a smile today, especially if embellished by the whim of having kept a Mercedes-powered Williams behind.

“It was probably my best race of the year - Button said – In my first pit stop I saw that Valtteri was about to restart from his rest area and I was already preparing for the blow. Unfortunately the contact ruined my stop and – worse – made me lose that DRS zone which I had fought so hard to maintain. Staying in the DRS area was our plan, and there the race was compromised a bit. But I'm happy with what we did today. I had fun on the track; I never thought I would be able to keep a Williams-Mercedes behind in the final laps, as it was much faster on the straight, but we managed it. It was a surprise, it gives us confidence, looking at next year we just have to keep pushing."

Antonino Rendina

Follow @antorendina