Button “annoyed” as Raikkonen yellow flag spoils lap

2014 Australian Grand Prix

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Jenson Button says his chance of reaching Q3 was scuppered by the yellow flag which was caused by Kimi Raikkonen’s crash.

Button missed the cut for Q2 by one tenth of a second.

“Everything was going really well,” he told reporters after qualifying, “the pace was good, especially in the wet conditions, were quickest when I actually did my lap time.”

“So I felt good and in the end just didn’t get enough time really. The lap that I did have was a yellow flag in turn three so I obviously backed out and couldn’t find enough time around the rest of the lap.”

Button said he expects conditions to improve for the race: “It’s going to be dry tomorrow, I think, from what I’ve seen.”

“We’ll see, it’s all a bit unknown for all of us. I’m not thinking about it yet, I’m too annoyed after qualifying.”

2014 Australian Grand Prix

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Image © McLaren/Hoch Zwei

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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51 comments on “Button “annoyed” as Raikkonen yellow flag spoils lap”

  1. Getting his excuses in nice and early… Beat by rookie teammate on the first qualifying session of the year. Embarrassing Button.

    1. Not really.

      1. Oh dear we’re not going to get all that bad mouthing stuff again this year are we? I hate to hear this stuff about any driver from armchair pundits. I reckon it’s a xcrossover from the football thing which I equally detest.

        1. By the way, @ four minutes before the end of Q2 JB was P1, people. It was possibly a bad call to roll the dice and come in to change, but that’s racing. I am not a woulda coulda shoulda kind of guy but to cry out for his immediate retirement from F1 because of a freak yellow is a tad premature you think?

          1. Sorry about the italics. Senior cursor moment.

    2. McLaren need to get Hulkenberg in that seat if they truly want to contend with the other top 3 teams. To win the Championship again Button would need another Brawn-esque car.

      1. Jayachandran S
        15th March 2014, 9:14

        Well, we cannot blame Jenson for that, he was surely on for a hot lap when Kimi crashed and he just had to slow down immediately . He later pitted straight. No one behind Kimi actually got through. Even Vettel got caught out and Kevin is under investigation. Well and if this is making excuses ,then why was Vettel unable to qualify?

    3. @pmccarthy_is_a_legend

      Autosport confirmed his and Vettel’s laps were spoiled by Raikkonen’s accident before he even made these declarations, so he is right and it’s not a excuse.

      It’s always good to inform ourselves before passing judgement.

    4. This is such a short sighted comment. In the post quali interview he was hardly ‘getting his excuses in’ he was being unashamedly honest and frank. It’s the first race of the year if you remember

  2. tough day at the office. I’m really not sure how to rank McLaren’s performance this year, they’re not very consistent. Same as Force India and Williams.

  3. Jenson, I think that it is time to retire. Let’s be honest now, you really don’t have what it takes to be champion again, especially when your car isn’t a second a lap faster than the field. I now rank Jenson below Magnussen, Ricciardo, Perez and Hulkenburg (And not just because of this quali, except maybe Magnussen). People just retire with your head held high, you’re about to be married and now it’s the perfect time to make way for Alonso, Vandervoone, Hulkenburg etc. for 2015 in McLaren-Honda.

    1. Magnussen, Ricciardo and Hulkenberg are better, but not Perez. He’s just Maldonado without the crashing.

    2. wow, what an analysis after one messed up & wet quali session. I’d say we wait for the race tomorrow before drawing such conclusions …

      1. +3

      1. ….for button retirement :D

        1. May i remind everyone that both vettel and Jensens times were good enough for p2 and p3 in final quali as there was no change in conditions Jensens time was still faster than mags who finished 4th on a 1.45 just bad luck with those yellow flags lets not pass judgement until the final race Jensen knows its a make or break year for him i think he will surprise again like he did with Hamilton not all about one lap pace .

          1. They used full wets in Q3 so the conditions were much different than in Q2. But for Kimi, Button would have easily made Q3.

        2. @gunusugeh
          Such an ignorant comment…

          Did you just look at the timesheets and come to that conclusion, without context?

    3. @mashiat
      On that basis the reigning world champion must be ready for the nursing home as well…
      Stop jumping on conclusions. We have barely got the season under way.

    4. You really think he will read your comment ?
      Now, my response, mode caustic ON: yes let’s get rid of Button because he missed Q3 because of the yellow flag.
      So what do we do with pathetic Raikkonen ? Unable to control his car around the track.

      1. let him retire too.

      2. If you read my comment, it was not based on this quali but on the past few seasons. Because realistically, he won’t win another championship

        1. So by your logic, LH should retire too: after all he was beaten by JB during their 3 years cooperation at McLaren…

          1. You agiain please watch f1 more Hamilton did not get beat hebeat JB more like 2-1, whoo cares that JB’s point gap was bigger in 2011(Hamilton was magnetic to Massa yet still won same amount of races), Button got lapped by his teammate in the dry at Canada thats bad

          2. @Dan

            You agiain please watch f1 more Hamilton did not get beat hebeat JB more like 2-1, whoo cares that JB’s point gap was bigger in 2011(Hamilton was magnetic to Massa yet still won same amount of races)

            First of all, he didn’t just beat Hamilton in 2011 – he beat ALL except Vettel, including the mighty Alonso and finished 2nd in the WDC. Remind me again Hamilton’s highest finishing position in the WDC for the last 5 years??

            Button got lapped by his teammate in the dry at Canada thats bad

            And if he wasn’t saved by a Red flag, Hamilton was 2 car lengths from being lapped by Button in Monaco of all places, so please have a little bit of a balanced view.

            I believe what @gwenouille was getting at was this;

            Everyone moans about Button being no good and that he should retire, yet Hamilton, who you all swoon over and call the best ever, hasn’t finished any higher than 4th in the WDC for the LAST 5 YEARS!! All this despite being one of the highest paid on the grid!

  4. Button can’t compete at the top any more, he’s losing it and he can’t learn a new set of skills again.

    This should be his last year.

    1. Spare a thought for Kimi who is thoroughly being slapped silly by Alonso. Oh, it’s painful to watch. Makes you wonder what Alonso would have done with that Lotus last year. Probably would have won the championship!

      1. @blackmamba
        It’s far too early to make such a statement. Last year Lotus and Ferrari were somewhat comparable cars, Lotus being a bit better in the 2nd half of the season. I do believe that Alonso would have performed better than either Kimi or Romain did, though.

        1. @kingshark, Lotus had a better car than Ferrari all around the year, if I remember correctly. They got ‘better’ in the second half while Ferrari stagnated.

          Enough of talking about the past, lets hope Ferrari get their act together and develop the car positively. Alonso will need every bit of the pace if he is to beat the Merc, RB and Macca.

      2. some people have to pull their head in on massive calls after first qualy of the year, relax on the ‘well done to magnussen and dissapointed in so and so’, race hasnt even been run. Kimi will find his feet, sure alo looked more comfortable…maybe its because hes been at the team since 2010?

    2. For goodness sake a k

      1. For goodness sake a kimi error causes JB to miss q3 by a tenth and we have mass hysteria … Get a grip as until then he was on the pace and easily looking for top 5… If KM is penalised by stewards and starts behind JB does that change any opinions ? Probably not do keys keep it all in perspective !

  5. According to Autosport, his and Vettel’s improvement laps were interrumpe by Raikkonen’s accident. Though day in the office, I guess.

  6. May i remind everyone that both vettel and Jensens times were good enough for p2 and p3 in final quali as there was no change in conditions Jensens time was still faster than mags who finished 4th on a 1.45 just bad luck with those yellow flags lets not pass judgement until the final race Jensen knows its a make or break year for him i think he will surprise again like he did with Hamilton not all about one lap pace

    1. But it rained between P2 & P3 didn’t it? That’s why everyone bar Alonso came out on wets in P3

    2. Lol, sorry that makes no sense. If they were fast enough they would have gotten into Q3. The reality was they were not.
      Every driver is racing on the same track in the same conditions. It’s up to the driver to get the lap in.
      Q2 was quite wet. Q3 was even wetter, I can vouch for that because me and my son were getting pretty wet out there. P2 and P3 time meant nothing.

    3. How come Vettel didn’t make it out of Q2 if his time was good enough for P3 in Q3?
      Something obviously wrong with your observation.

      1. Hahahaha yea…
        Something definitely wrong with his observation.

  7. I don’t really know what to make of it. It was a bit of a gamble to pit for new tyres for just one last lap so they should have pit earlier. There’s always a good chance you’re going to see a yellow flag at some point in those conditions.

  8. Some short sighted people on this comment section bashing Button, whilst Raikkonen and Vettel get off mostly unscathed. Regardless of their performance today, it’s the first qualifying session of the season, a wet, unpredictable one at that

    1. It’s a shame to see that these comments sections occasionally degrade to ignorant and irrational notions.

      Button and Vettel’s laps were ruined by Raikkonen.
      Button was 0.1s off of making Q3… Had the yellow flags not appeared, he would have easily made those 0.1s back.

      Ridiculous…

      1. Precisely

  9. What was his excuse for being slower than Magnusson in q3 then?

    Still, I’m not going to beat him up. McLaren look like they’ve got another slow car this year so I’m not expecting miracles from either man.

    1. BUTTON WAS 0.5 FASTER than MAG in EVERY SINGLE practice session. Heck even in Q2, after the first set of fresh tires BUTTON’S LAP was 1,1 SECOND faster than MAG. Mag got lucky, Raikonnen was behind him when he crashed. He did had to slow down on the ever drying track. BUTTON on the other hand JUST STARTED his flying lap…

  10. Geez. Jenson just keeps getting sadder and sadder to watch… Follow James Hunt´s footsteps lad… Bow down and go to work on Michibata!

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