Button urges McLaren to not leave 'anything on the table'

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Jenson Button has urged McLaren to stay calm and ensure it does not leave "anything on the table" starting from third place in today's Austrian Grand Prix.

In mixed conditions on Saturday, Button excelled to finish fifth in qualifying before being promoted to third on the grid as a result of penalties for Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel. Button was delighted with the result and while he is not willing to predict where he can finish in the race he simply wants McLaren to make the most of the opportunity.

“When I crossed the line and the guys said I was P5 I was obviously ecstatic," Button said. "We were P5 because we did a good job. Fair enough we got lucky to be P3, but I think if you take P5 sometimes you've got to have luck on your side, which I don’t feel I have had in qualifying this year.

"Of course I’m going to be happy. I think it’s a great result for the team. It’s never good when you have two cars that are too separate with one car in P3 and Fernando back in 13th or 14th, but of course I’m ecstatic.

“I think the most important thing is we’re in a great starting position, we’ve made the race a lot easier for ourselves. Now it’s about keeping our heads, giving our all and not leaving anything on the table.”

And Button says he celebrated on Saturday night as he is aware of how difficult it will be to keep faster cars behind him in the race.

“Yeah it was great. I enjoyed myself last night and had a small glass of wine and enjoyed the day! I’m looking forward to today, it’s pretty mixed isn’t it? It’s still wet, it was raining earlier.

“It definitely mixes it up and I guess makes it more fun but before the race you’re always a little bit apprehensive when it’s raining. I’m looking forward to it, it’s a fun circuit to drive.

"It’s not going to be the easiest circuit for us to keep cars behind to be fair - unless I just take my mirrors off and then maybe we’ll be OK - and we’ll see what we can do. I’m excited for the race and we’ll see what the weather throws at us.”

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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.