Button taken to hospital to check eye irritation

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Jenson Button has been taken to hospital in Mannheim to check an eye irritation which halted his running during FP2.

The McLaren driver completed just 16 laps in the second practice session before he was taken to the medical centre after complaining of the irritation while in the cockpit. Shortly after the end of the session, McLaren confirmed Button had been taken to hospital in order to receive a full check-up.

"Jenson complained of an eye irritation during FP2, and has gone to Mannheim hospital to have a precautionary check-up," McLaren tweeted.

Button was eighth quickest in the session and did not lose out on too much running compared to team-mate Fernando Alonso, who completed just five more laps in FP2.

Should there be any threat to Button's participation in the rest of the race weekend, reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne is on site for McLaren. Vandoorne drove in place of the injured Alonso in Bahrain earlier this season, scoring the team's first point of the year in tenth place.

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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.