Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

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

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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.