Button takes satisfaction from beating Williams

2016 German Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Jenson Button was pleased with his run to eighth place in the German Grand Prix which included a late pass on Valtteri Bottas.

German GP in pictures
The McLaren driver qualified 12th but gained ground quickly at the start. “I made a very good start and made up most of the places there,” he said.

“After that, it was just about looking after the tyres, which were degrading faster than we’d expected. We also had to do a fair amount of fuel-saving, too, particularly in the last ten laps.”

“In fact, I went off the circuit towards the end, just because I was doing so much fuel-saving that I hit the brakes and they were just stone cold. I hadn’t even been braking hard.”

Button was running ahead of Felipe Massa when the first Williams retired, and closed on Bottas in the final laps.

“At the end, I was able to pick off Valtteri, who was struggling on his tyres,” he said. “It feels satisfying to have beaten both Williams, but eighth was as good as it was going to get today – we were 20 seconds behind the car in front, and there’s still quite a bit to go before we catch those guys.”

2016 German Grand Prix

    Browse all German Grand Prix articles

    Author information

    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...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    9 comments on “Button takes satisfaction from beating Williams”

    1. Well Alonso was able to overtake Massa, but was Massa having a problem? It seemed like Mclaren were quite strong here…

      1. @krichelle Massa got hit by Palmer in the rear at the start, after that he just have no pace at all. No one know why, the engineers spent some time during pit to check the rear end at by the body language it seems they also don’t know why.

        On another note, McLaren look the weakest here since Austria, which actually a prove of how much they progressed since start of the season.

    2. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
      31st July 2016, 16:44

      Don’t take too much satisfaction Jenson they’re your best chance of a seat next year! Another solid drive from Jenson though. Still got it.

    3. So maybe that’s why Alonso was locking up his fronts constantly while trying to stay in fromt of Perez, low brake temps because of fuel saving?

      Good race by McLaren anyway… Alas a lap behind the Mercedes. But in the mix with Williams and Force India

      1. Makes sense. Fuel consumption is still a weakness for McHonda.

    4. Button isn’t fully aware of what went on with Williams nevertheless to have 2 competitive Merc costumers behind you is a good sign for Honda. I think it’s clear by now that Honda are in front of Ferrari’s 2015 package. Honda is getting closer to getting the ambitious compact philosophy to work on the straights, with good strategy as for today the team can run competitively as there’s not much wrong with the Honda performance, whilst running reliably their package has been strong in quick tracks, ever since Russia.
      Why didn’t McLaren unleash Alonso? Considering how under fuelled the cars were not compromising the quicker car would grant them better odds at least both cars could have finished in tandem.

      1. Err how was Alonso the quicker car this weekend? Button beat him all weekend, and I don’t remember Alonso even getting within DRS of Button. Alonso was using more fuel to even keep up with him, hence he plumeted at the end. Button was quicker this weekend.

    5. Another encouraging result from McLaren. Seems like they are on par with TR/Williams and not far from FI (which is catching Williams).

    6. I had to chuckle at Ferrari when they suggested to Vettel that he should undercut Verstappen who was 8 seconds ahead and Vettel was having none of it.

    Comments are closed.