Jenson Button

Arguably the best ever driver in mixed conditions, all his wins at Mclaren have come in those conditions. His last race win in the dry came at the 2009 Turkish GP.

Button is known for his smooth driving style and is normally seen in must races doing one less stop than his rivals for tyres.

Buttons also know to be a bit of a practical joker and will take part in anything fun.

Since his debut in 2000 Button has won the majority of hearts in this country. But what is your favourite JB win?

Mine has to be Hungaroring 2006, in argubly a midfield team and he won the race in those mixed conditions to take his first win. I can remember James Allen been in tears almost and that was the first race Anthony Davidson ever commentated on.

 

[The Pits]

Yes he did, but it was hulkenbergs!!

 

[The Artist.....]

Awesome the way one part of an argument is drawn on but others are ignored. He did not win that race because of fighting spirit.

Or are you just ignoring other people pointing out that JB was driving with fighting spirit - overtaking Hamilton in the damp conditions was fairly good fighting spirit... We never got to see the balance of the race though- as it could well have been Button who came through once the conditions changed....

 

[Hamberg]

Potentially in terms of the outcome. I have seen Jenson drive with fighting spirit. Canada 11, Austin. Today I did not see nearly as much of this. This was not an epic JB drive hence my issue with fighting spirit.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Oh well, never mind then, I guess we all see what we want to see...

 

[FB]

Don't think Jenson needed to show "fighting spirit" per se as once Hammy was out the race was his. Drove brilliantly, and I'm sure he passed Hamilton in the first few laps.

 

[gethinceri]

Not necessarily Mephistopheles, i have always wanted to see Narain win in an HRT.

 

[Hamberg]

Indeed Meph and some have applied that principle to my posts

 

[Mephistopheles]

And I've always wanted to see a rainbow on the moon gethinceri but ho hum....

 

[gethinceri]

You have therefore destroyed your own opinion Mephistopheles, well done.

 

[Il_leone]

I should say Button's win takes him ahead of Jack Brabham and Graham Hill in wins record and next man to overcome Sir Stirling Moss on 16 wins

I am sure Button will end up with 20 wins at least when his career is done

As far as his comment goes it is good morale for him and the team to carry momentum into next season by ending on a high

I hope he just does not win races when Vettel is going to be crowned world champion because that is two years in a row now

a bit more consistency next season will help as well

As for today's race he was faster than Hamilton when it began to drizzle a bit when he suddenly took the lead and felt more at ease about driving in the conditions when Hamilton did the first stop and his lead was wiped out by the SC first time round

On his fresh set he was not as comfortable and just about kept up and was in the perfect position to pounce when the front two collided

 

[Hamberg]

It's a pity that he and Jense lost that 40 second lead they gained by good tyre decisions the the rain stopping unexpectedly.

Fixed that for you

 

[Mephistopheles]

As it turns out Jenson had first choice of pitting as he was the lead McLaren at the time and he refused to do so, and so his call was about skill and reading the conditions and nothing at all to do with luck.

In those types of conditions Jenson has proved time and time again that he is the master........

 

[racecub]

Sometimes he gets lucky with his calls, sometimes not. I don't think there's anything stand out about him in mixed conditions. He hit another car in mixed conditions in Malaysia, took out his team mate and Alonso in mixed conditions in China last year. Had it suddenly poured with rain on Sunday, as it could have done, and he'd opted to stay out on slicks, it wouldn't have looked so clever. He did drive well early on in the GP and was unfortunate to lose time with the safety car, but in such mixed conditions you can always expect a safety car. Later in the race Hamilton was pulling away and he was very lucky to inherit the lead when the second placed driver took out the leader.

 

[Mephistopheles]

He wins far to often in those conditions for it to be just luck, and when his team mate was pulling away that was because they were on different tyres, Hamilton's tyres suited track temperature better than Jenson's, when they were on the same tyres Jenson was the faster driver....

 

[racecub]

You can't have this both ways. When Jenson is on the better tyres its because he makes great calls and is better in these conditions...but when Hamilton is on the better tyre its nothing to with his tyre call or his ability to make the tyre work.

 

[Mephistopheles]

He had no choice as to which tyres he went on as he hadn't used the inters which meant he had to use both types of dry tyres during the race it would have been stupid to go back onto the options on his pitstop....

 

[Bill Boddy]

If the rain stopped unexpectedly what lap was that on? Hamilton came in at the end of lap 10 having lost a total 1.667 seconds to Button on the previous two laps. Button's and Hulkenbeg's lap times then went up from 1:24.771 on lap 6 to 1:24.892 on lap 10, staying no lower than 1:27.242 and going as high as 1:31.435 on lap 15 before coming down to 1:27.830 on lap 16. From lap 12 to lap 15 Hamilton was quicker than the leaders by 1 to 2 seconds on the intermediates, from lap 16 onwards his times were higher until he changed tyres again.

All timing from the FIA timing web page http://184.106.145.74/fia-f1/f1-2012/f1-2012-20/Race History Chart.pdf

 

[racecub]

Ok fair enough, but that's still a knock on effect of his choice to stay out earlier.

 

[Mephistopheles]

And it would have been okay if it were not for the safety car, he wasn't that much slower, I'm not suggesting that Jenson is the superior driver here or dismissing Lewis I'm just saying he knows what he is doing in those types of conditions.......

 

[Dizzi]

Having just caught a bit of replay of the race I'm beginning to think Hulkenburg was rash rather than brave with his move on Hamilton.
Hamilton passed Hulkenburg when Nico's car snapped on him going into a corner so Hulkenburg knew his car was unstable through corners. To attempt that pass on Lewis when they were surrounded by other cars and in a car known to lose it's back end through a corner the move was a bit too optimistic. He will (or should) have known Lewis would have no escape route sandwiched between the backmarkers if his car didn't hold its line.
I'll be fair to the lad & put it down to inexperience, he'll learn & he shows promise.
I'm glad he sought out Lewis to talk to as they may well be on the same bit of track many time next year.