Jenson Button
Well, talk about braving the storm. After a weekend marred by wind, rain, soggy Americans, and Ricciardo’s dodgy facial hair, Formula One came up trumps and delivered an absolute classic.
And a new three-time world champion in Lewis Hamilton.
But if weathering the storm was the aim of the game, look no further then Jenson Button. After all, with an aptly-titled ‘GP2 engine’, poor reliability and a gazillion grid penalties, he’s been doing it all season.
Come a gloomy Texan race-day however, Button shone through, prevailing at the end of a 56-lap overtaking melee, safety car frenzy, and pit-stop laden fest of awesomeness to cross the line in a battling sixth.
Button’s weekend started poorly before it even began, with Fernando Alonso given the new shiny Honda parts in the other half of the garage, before a washed out FP1 session left him 13th, and six-tenths adrift of Alonso in ninth. FP2 was of course cancelled due to the worsening conditions.
After describing Sunday mornings delayed qualifying session as ‘scary’ and one he was ‘not in control’ of, JB wound up 11th on the grid, and at the race start quickly found himself embroiled in a fight with the likes of Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg and Kimi Raikkonen on a drying track.
With McLaren’s power deficit less of a hindrance thanks to the conditions, Button’s class shone through, battling past the likes of Alonso, Pastor Maldonado, Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz- the latter two in one glorious swoop at turn 12 after the final restart.
The chequered flag might have fell in the Deep South, but there was nothing southern about Button’s finishing position this weekend, with the Brit digging deep to give McLaren its second best best finish to date in 2015.
Well done Jenson, you’re our Top Dog!
