Button says “I backed off” after Massa’s crash
2011 Indian Grand Prix
Jenson Button, McLaren, Buddh International Circuit, 2011
Jenson Button said he backed off when Felipe Massa crashed in front of him at the end of qualifying for the Indian Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver set his fastest lap of Q3 after passing the scene of Massa’s crash as the yellow flags came out.
Speaking after qualifying he said: “No he was heading into the gravel I think as I was coming up to it.
“I saw the tyre marks, I saw the smoke, and then I saw the yellow flag but I was actually in the yellow flag zone already.
“So we’ll see what happens. But I backed off and I hope it’s enough.”
Button said he was “not at all happy” with the car’s performance in qualifying and was hoping it would perform better in the race:
“This morning the car felt great. The pace was good and the car just felt good.
“And this afternoon I just couldn’t find any grip. On the hard tyre I couldn’t find any grip and on the soft tyre the same.
“I didn’t really get a clear lap on either of my soft tyre runs. The traffic’s been terrible out there. I think because the tyres aren’t working the first lap, people are trying it and then backing out of it so there’s cars everywhere.
“I think I’ll end up fourth tomorrow so we’ll see. At the moment I’ve got to work out why I can’t find a balance. And then hopefully we’ll have a better race than qualifying, it was a disaster qualifying really.
“The car felt good on high fuel yesterday and hopefully we’ll have that balance for tomorrow.”
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Image © McLaren
Jacob_Beard said on 29th October 2011, 15:42
The yellow light was well past the incident, the marshals did get it wrong, it should definitely have been green. It sounded from the onboard footage that there was a momentary lift from button as he exited the corner Massa went off on. I don’t think he should be penalised.
Dave_F1 said on 29th October 2011, 15:51
I guess the yellow was been waved past the accident because maybe that was where the marshall’s were coming from that were going to recover Massa’s car.
They don’t just put the yellow out where the car is, Its also put out where marshalls & recovery vehicles are going to be running to recover the car.
Bernard (@bernard) said on 29th October 2011, 17:31
New track, same old incompetent stewarding – business as usual then…
AM (@am) said on 29th October 2011, 19:52
@Keith Last week we had a discussion about the way you react on posts concerning certain drivers and you asked if I had examples (evidence). This is such an example where you tend to ‘defend’ driver X when someone posts something ‘negative’ about the driver, whereas you react supportive on negative reactions about driver Y. A bit cryptic, although you’ll understand my point.
Carl Craven said on 29th October 2011, 20:10
Funniest thread I ever read.
Button for the win tomorrow ;)
UncleBob said on 30th October 2011, 1:26
+1!!! Someone with sense at last.
UncleBob said on 30th October 2011, 1:26
Well done Jens, you got away with it…. Makes a nice change for a Brit Team/Driver to get the ‘rub of the green’ for once ;)