Jenson finished the race in eighth place after qualifying in ninth. It is no secret that the 2009 world champion has been struggling as of late and his championship hopes have taken a bit of a bruising; he's won six points from the last five races. He hasn't been consistently finishing in the points; something that will be key in the outcome of this season. When he has finished in the points, he has been towards the lower end of the top 10. McLaren told us that they have understood what Jenson's problems with the car were and have taken steps to resolve it. Qualifying wasn't as hard for him as it has been for the last few races and he reached Q3 fairly comfortably. I'm sure 9th wasn't what he would have wanted but it may be a stepping stone to better Qualifying results. Jenson had a fairly uneventful race. He wasn't involved in any collisions etc... But it was clear that he still wasn't at one with the car. Tyre degradation was still a problem for him and he was also suffering from locking up. His position in the points was helped by the retirements of Hamilton, Vettel and Grosjean but I'm sure he thinks it's about time he had some luck.
The British Grand Prix is next up on the 2012 calendar and I'm sure it will be the one that means the most to Button. If his problems were to continue into this race his title hopes would be on some sort of metaphorical life support machine. Every driver wants to perform well and, at the very least, get on the podium at their home Grand Prix so Jenson's woes wouldn't be limited to his championship dreams. The fans will also be hoping there is a significant improvement in Button's performance. Can he and McLaren deliver the goods in a fortnight's time? They've had quite a few races to sort his problems out so Jenson may need a bit more luck.
Force India also stood out for me in this Grand Prix. Both of their drivers capitalised on their top 10 qualifying and won a good amount of points in Valencia. Most impressively, they gained more points than their rivals Williams and Sauber. Hulkenberg finished in 5th with Di Resta in 7th and the team will be aware that they must now bring the updates necessary to change this strong result into a podium in the near future. Both Sauber and Williams have finished on the podium so Force India will be eager to share some of that glory. Paul Di Resta said that he could have qualified higher up and felt he could have gotten a lot closer to the Lotus'. Had they succeeded with that, they may well have got a podium stop in such an eventful race. He is another driver who will want to impress at Silverstone and I'm sure he won't want to be beaten by his teammate again. The Force India drivers make a very interesting pair and I'm sure they will act as a motivation to each other as they are both young, ambitious and talented drivers who know that beating their teammate is their most important challenge. They're not exactly challenging for the Drivers' championship so the inter-team rivalry is what means the most to them.
That's the end of the brief extension to my European Grand Prix review and it just covered the two main points from the race results that I personally found interesting. They're also the most relevant for the British Grand Prix when Button and Di Resta, along with Hamilton, will be the main figures of attention.
My 'Setting the Scene' feature and thoughts on the penalties handed out after the race are still to come... I will also start adding new features to the blog, which is always exciting!
Aqsa
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