Jenson Button will start the Malaysian GP from 17th place after spinning off into the gravel in qualifying. He finished the first session in 13th, but he was unable to start Q2 due to his incident.
It was a dramatic first session that saw all the top teams display a little too much faith in the numbers rather than their senses as they kept their guys in the garage.
“We thought it wasn’t going to rain again,” said a frustrated Button. “We didn’t want to risk going out early, when you can aquaplane, so we waited in the garage, which is obviously the wrong thing to do now, in hindsight, but it’s a risk we took. In reality we didn’t think it was a risk. It’s disappointing. I ended up in the gravel, and obviously Lewis didn’t get through.
The only good news for Button is that he is ahead of both Ferraris and his own team mate.
“The negatives are that I am a long way back on the grid compared to the Red Bulls and the Mercedes, but I am in front of three of my rivals. It just proves that we made the wrong call, really. You make the right one sometimes, you make the wrong ones other times, so we’ve just got to hope the positives outweigh the negatives.
“We can make a good race from where we are. It’s exactly what F1 wants! It’s frustrating, and when you’re sat in the gravel and everyone is driving round, that’s the worst feeling ever. But it turned out OK for me, I was lucky that I got a lap in really, when other people were struggling with the conditions. It could be worse…”
Adam Cooper F1 
“…top teams display a little too much faith in the numbers rather than their senses as they kept their guys in the gravel.”
uhh…. I think keeping them in the gravel is a bit unintentional… like the typo 🙂
I was watching at 3 AM local time, so I was 80% awake, but as I recall, Button came off much better than Hamilton in his comments.
I thought Hamilton sounded rather conceited when he said “Even I had a spin out there.” to the BBC pit babe.
Every time hamilton opens his mouth he reinforces my low opinion of him.