Jenson Button Q&A: There’s still a chance of victory 10 Sep 2011
Being beaten to pole position by over half a second by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel is not a great starting point for McLaren team mates Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. Button, however, isn’t feeling too disheartened with his third-place grid slot and is confident the British team will be able to show more of the MP4-26’s pace on Sunday…
Q: Jenson, how satisfied are you with a second row grid slot?
Jenson Button: Well, I would say that Q3 was fine, but looking back I have to say that this weekend started pretty badly for me on Friday. So taking that into account it’s not too bad. In Q3 I unfortunately lost one-tenth in Turn One and carried that all through the lap so I pitted early to save tyres. To be honest looking at the timesheet that half a second Sebastian (Vettel) is ahead is a pretty long way. But then it’s Saturday and tomorrow is the big day, and hopefully we can show that we have pace then.
Q: Red Bull’s Mark Webber reported KERS problems on his car - and it’s long way down to Turn One…
JB: It will certainly be tricky from where I am because it is quite narrow. The first two can be side by side but a third car will find it very difficult to find a gap to move forward. It is a long race and we definitely will not do anything stupid into Turn One. I know that is easy to say now because when the adrenalin is pumping a situation might look much more promising than it really is, but we are professionals and should be able to control our actions. As I just said it is a long race and I hope that many opportunities will come my way. We’ve done a good job in terms of strategy, gearing and down force - we’ve tried many different things over the last two days - but of course it’s not a perfect weekend because we are not both on front row.
Q: Were you expecting the Red Bulls to be so strong here?
JB: Look at their qualifying record then you know that they are fast everywhere. To be that strong here? Possibly not half a second strong! But also at other races we’ve seen them with a massive advantage in qualifying, and then they’ve lost some of their pace in the race. So you can be sure that we will do our best.
Q: You just mentioned that Vettel was half a second ahead in qualifying. Will he be able to keep that advantage in the race?
JB: I hope not (laughs) but it is a massive gap so it is going to be tough for us to catch up. But it is not the first time that we’ve seen a margin like that, so my guess is that we will race better than we’ve qualified - I hope! It is the first hot race in quite a while and my guess is that it will be tough on tyres - and tough on us.
Q: On Friday you predicted a spectacular race - do you still believe that’s possible?
JB: Yes I still do and let’s hope that we are part of that.
Q: You have never won at Monza - not even in your championship -winning year in 2009. Could tomorrow be your turn?
JB: Starting from P3 is not the worst position to hold out for a race win. To be honest I haven’t got a clue what will happen tomorrow - so let’s wait and see. One thing that is promising is if you take the last race in Spa. I started from P10 and ended in P3.
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