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Button 'made mistakes I shouldn't have', blames preparation

Jenson Button says he "made mistakes I shouldn't have" at the start of the Italian Grand Prix after "an emotional weekend".

On Saturday evening the 2009 world champion announced he will not race for McLaren in 2017, taking a year as an ambassador for the team but potentially returning the following season. Starting from 14th on the grid at Monza, Button dropped to last place on the first lap and says it was partly his own fault as he failed to prepare properly for the start of the race.

"The first lap was a mess and I made mistakes I shouldn’t have," Button said. "Hopefully I can be let off for that, it’s been an emotional weekend and not the best preparation at all. Once I got the first lap out of the way I sorted myself out.

"The start I made a pig’s ear at the start. Sat there with the wheels spinning it was totally my fault. Annoying because the initial getaway was good.

"Then through Lesmo I got pushed off by one of the Saubers, he just drove me straight off the circuit and ended up in the gravel trap and last so I thought this is going to be a tough afternoon and it was but also a really an enjoyable afternoon. I don’t think it was a bad day at all."

And Button says his performance was very good after the first lap, believing he could have challenged Nico Hulkenberg for tenth place given a clean start.

"Not emotional at all I just don’t think I prepped as well as I should have and on the first lap I made a few mistakes that I shouldn’t have done. But the rest of the race after that went well and was actually great. Very happy with my performance, actually think one of my best races.

"[Without the first lap] I think we could have challenged Hulk for a point, but that would have been it. He was only 13 second in front so I don’t think that was unreachable."

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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.