Jenson Button believes McLaren-Honda had “good pace” at the Mexican Grand Prix but could not show it after he and team-mate Fernando Alonso spent their first stints stuck in traffic.
Starting from 13th on the grid, the 2009 world champion had a rather uneventful race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, only using his one-stop strategy to leapfrog the two-stopping Alonso and cross the line in 12th.
“The problem for us, and for everybody, I think, was that you couldn’t overtake,” Button said. “We lost so much time in the first 20 or 30 laps, I was stuck behind Fernando and then behind Carlos [Sainz] and also Magnussen, plus Palmer, close to the end. Eventually I managed to pass them all, which was all we could have done.
“The actual pace was good, I had fun out there with some pretty little fights, I did some overtaking. You wouldn’t think it would be difficult to overtake with such a long straight, but out of the last corner you can’t stay close.
“Once I passed them all I could show my pace, but had already lost so much time compared to the people who had stopped in lap one. It was a pity, but I definitively got the best out of what I had. I enjoyed it but I would have liked it to have these battles further up the grid.”
With the Safety Car out on the opening lap following a first-corner melee involving Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein, Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and Haas’ Esteban Gutierrez, several drivers elected to pit straight away.
Button says McLaren-Honda contemplated following a similar strategy.
“We could have stopped on Lap 1, but we were in 12th or 13th position, which were not great but not too bad either, so we couldn’t take a gamble. The guys at the gap took a gamble, as they had nothing to lose, but it was too much of a gamble for us.”
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