Sunday: Button and McLaren could have aimed for 5th place

Jenson Button (#22) – 16th (Retirement, clutch)

After a long series of consecutive finishes, Jenson Button was forced to retire by his MP4-29 today, despite having a competitive car: « In terms of pace, we made a step forward this weekend. Additionally, our degradation was satisfactory and I think we did a very good job understanding how our tires work. »

The McLaren driver acknowledges that, although his car is fast, other teams are ahead: « Our pace over the long stints was very good, especially in the final laps. So we could have really raced and come back strongly at the end on medium tires. Unfortunately, we didn’t have that opportunity. »

The Briton still took a lot of pleasure in this race, with many overtakes in the process: « I can’t even remember how many cars I overtook, but it was a lot. I really enjoyed that. » The 2009 world champion finally gives his opinion on the current controversy with a supposedly lesser show by some players: « Formula 1 may have new power units and new technical regulations this year, but it’s largely at the level of what it was before in terms of on-track spectacle. »

Kevin Magnussen (No. 20) – Retirement (clutch)

After having finished in the points in two Grand Prix, Kevin Magnussen had to step out before his racing colleagues: « It wasn’t a great race for me. The start wasn’t ideal – I lost 3 positions – and after that, we didn’t have the pace to move forward. » Despite a dip in form compared to Malaysia, the young Dane wants to learn from this weekend: « We will analyze it carefully, and I’m sure we will learn some things from it. We’re constantly learning, actually ».

Kevin Magnussen is now looking towards the future and the Chinese Grand Prix, which he hopes will be better for the team: « It’s disappointing to see that the team didn’t score any points today – two retirements are never pleasant for any team – but we will go to the Chinese Grand Prix with the objective of doing better than here ».