Button drives 'flat out' for first McLaren-Honda points

Jenson Button says he was able to drive "flat out" for the whole Monaco Grand Prix to secure McLaren-Honda its first points of the season.

Starting from tenth place, Button was well position to chase the first top ten result of the season for McLaren, which has struggled with a lack of performance and reliability from the Honda power unit so far. A strong start saw him hold position and he moved up to ninth when Pastor Maldonado hit trouble before a slow stop for Max Verstappen promoted him to eighth, and Button says he was able to push throughout the whole race in clear air.

"We were hoping to score points and we scored four," Button said. "It was a good race, it was an unusual race because when you start tenth you spend the race in traffic normally, but because of Maldonado’s problems it split everyone up, so it was a flat out race from lap four. Tough race, really enjoyed it and it became a little bit physical, which is nice!"

And Button says it was important for the team to show good pace as well as securing a strong result.

"Obviously we are lacking in terms of outright performance, but the set-up was pretty good. There are few things we need to work on but I don’t think our pace was too bad compared with the leaders. I am relatively happy with the day.

"You try everything you can’t catch the car in front of you, which was Checo [Perez], but it wasn’t possible. The safety car came out and tyre temperatures went through the floor, which made it tricky, but a good race and I am really happy for the team. This is a stepping stone."

Click here for a gallery of Max Verstappen's crash with Romain Grosjean during the Monaco Grand Prix

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

Marko: ‘No chance at all’ for Red Bull in Las Vegas

Helmut Marko believes that Red Bull and Max Verstappen are unlikely to challenge for victory…

2 hours ago

GM revives bid to join F1 with accelerated talks for 2026 entry

Automotive giant General Motors is reportedly back in the game as a potential entrant in…

4 hours ago

Las Vegas GP: Thursday's action in pictures

The opening day of running at the Las Vegas GP was a smooth but chilly…

5 hours ago

Williams' headaches persist into Vegas practice

Williams is continuing to fight uphill battles this weekend in Las Vegas as a knock-on…

6 hours ago

Ferrari's Sainz 'not satisfied with where we are' in Vegas

It was a solid start to the Las Vegas weekend for Ferrari with Carlos Sainz…

8 hours ago

Norris labels McLaren long-run pace ‘shocking’ in chilly Vegas

Lando Norris didn’t hold back in his assessment of McLaren’s performance on the opening day…

9 hours ago