Jenson Button took a sensational victory in Melbourne, his first for McLaren after just two races. The Brit though, doesn’t reckon he’ll be challenging regularly for wins until the team address the MP4-25’s qualifying weaknesses.
“I think the conditions helped us in this race, definitely,” he told ITV.
“We’re not in the position to go to the next two or three races and walk away with victories, so we’ve got to enjoy this moment and think that we’ve got some good points when we’re not the quickest and we’ve got to work on the areas where we think we’re weak.
“We’re doing that right now and I think that every race we go to from here we will be closer and closer to the front when it comes to qualifying and hopefully race pace is pretty much there now.”
Button managed to reel in Sebastian Vettel, who was leading the race before a loose wheel nut caused a brake failure and sent the German into the gravel. That promoted Button to first.
Button was unsure of whether he would have been able to pass the Red Bull had he not retired.
“I was catching him initially and it was strange – he would start pulling away and I would start pulling him in,” Button said.
“Then the team said ‘you are going to try and do the whole race on these tyres, 45, 50 laps’, and I thought we will back off a little bit and see where we are.
“From previous experience, I don’t know if it is the case now, but the Red Bulls have been quite tough on their rear tyres. If he had stayed in the race there are always ifs and buts and we don’t know how he would have ended up.”
