Saturday afternoon in Monte Carlo was McLaren Honda's most competitive qualifying performance of the season with both drivers making it through the all-important Q3 for the first time this year.
Securing ninth on the grid for Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix, Jenson Button certainly proved that he hasn't lost any of his skill behind the wheel of an F1 car, despite the new regulations and wider heavier cars that he hadn't tired prior this weekend.
Unfortunately, because he is subbing for Fernando Alonso, Jenson has to accept the 15 place grid penalty the Spaniard would have incurred if he was taking part in the race as the Woking based squad were forced to fit a new MGU-H and turbo-charger.
This means that he will be starting the race from the very back of the grid.
“It was a lot of fun out there. Practice was fine, but in qualifying you reach a point where you really need to fine-tune the car's performance, and that's still a bit of a learning curve for me. This year's tyres are completely different to last year's in terms of how they work; how they fade away; how they last. It's been tricky trying to find those last few per cent,” he said.
“But I'm happy – in my one and only race this year I qualify ninth… and start 20th! I never expected to have this opportunity, so this is a great memory for me: driving around Monaco in these monsters, such great machines. I'm very lucky. I'll take that ninth position home with me at the end of the weekend – I should be chuffed to bits with that.”
