Sin GP - Race weekend recap - Button

The McLaren team just can't put everything together at the moment.

The combination of two British World Championship drivers in Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton together with the McLaren MP4-27 should have put together some big points hauls over the past few races.

But the Woking based team just do not seem to be able to get both drivers to the end of a Grand Prix in the points any more, with Spain, Britain and Hungary the only exceptions since Bahrain in April.

From the first 14 races of the season either Button or Hamilton have been forced to retire on 7 occasions and recently that has been when the team have looked likely to win or fight for a podium finish.

It happened in Monza to Button and in Singapore it happened to Hamilton.

Hamilton's retirement bumped his team-mate Jenson Button up into second place, although the 2009 F1 World Champion never had the pace of his team-mate throughout the weekend.

Friday and Saturday practice ended with Button more in hope than anticipation of a good qualifying session and whilst Hamilton blitz to pole position, Button posted a time 0.577 seconds slower to qualify fourth.

“I found it a bit tough today; I didn’t really feel comfortable with my car, the rear went away from me quite quickly, and I struggled to look after the tyres over a lap. I hope the balance will be better in the race than it was in qualifying. The high degradation around here will make it a tricky race, but I think we’ll be okay. Button told formula1.com after qualifying.

As mentioned Button gained a place following the retirement of his team-mate, whilst Pastor Maldonado who had qualified second slipped away from the leaders very early on in the race.

That meant that Button moved up into second place, but the only ever time Button could get close to leader Sebastian Vettel was following safety car periods. Once the races restarted, Button simply had no answer for the Red Bull.

“It’s nice to be back on the podium - and, if I finish every remaining race in the top one or two, that’ll be perfect. During the first stint, I even thought I had a chance of winning because I was able to go longer than the cars around me. But then they didn’t seem to struggle much on the harder tyre, so the advantage swung away from me.

The second place finish for Button, offered very little in terms of the drivers world championship, but the 18 points in the constructors championship extended McLaren's advantage over Ferrari in the battle for second place.