Button expects tough race after “best qualifying”

2015 Russian Grand Prix

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Jenson Button expects a difficult race in Sochi despite what he described as one of his best qualifying results of the year.

The McLaren driver will start 13th on the grid – his best qualifying performance of the season after Monaco.

“This was probably my best qualifying performance of the year,” said Button. “We got into Q2 due to our actual speed, rather than because of the others having any issues.”

“Q1 was straightforward – I was only a tenth and a half off the top 10. In Q2, it cooled down a lot – my new-tyre run was three-tenths slower than my old-tyre run. That last lap was really low-grip, even though I’d done a couple of warm-up laps beforehand. I think a lot of people struggled to get the temperatures right.”

However Button expects his car’s high fuel consumption to be a significant weakness over a race distance.

“The race will be tougher for us than qualifying was because our [elergy] deployment isn’t as good as other people’s, so we’ll be affected along the long straights here,” he said.

“In turn, that will affect our fuel consumption – since we use more fuel because we don’t have as much deployment capability.”

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    6 comments on “Button expects tough race after “best qualifying””

    1. @keithcollantine: “The race will be tougher for us than qualifying was because our [elergy] deployment isn’t as good as other people’s” – an elegy is a typically a reflective poem that is a lament for the dead. In the context of the McLaren-Honda engine woes, it seems apposite.

      1. … sorry, “an elegy is typically a reflective poem”.
        Any chance for an edit option?

    2. or is it allergy? :P

    3. Jillian Scrimwith-Simpson
      11th October 2015, 6:57

      Jenson should have quit in 2009. He’s just making a parody out of the sport.

      1. Jillian, you’re going to have to explain every part of that comment to me. A parody? In what context are you using that word?

      2. Yeah, because apart from his 25 podiums and 8 victories in 2010, 2011 and 2012, his second place in the WDC in 2011, and his epic Canada win from last to first, twice, he’s been totally unable to drive as well as anyone else. /sarcasm.

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