F1: Jenson Button lays blame on McLaren for torrid time
The former world champion finished 12th in Canada
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Your support makes all the difference.As Lewis Hamilton enjoyed his resurgence on a track that has historically been good to him, taking a fighting third place, former Canadian Grand Prix winner Jenson Button had a torrid time in a McLaren that just did not work.
The Englishman never ran higher than 10th on his single-stop strategy and finished a lapped and frustrated 12th, one place and three seconds adrift of his two-stopping team-mate Sergio Perez.
"It was just one of those difficult days that you have," Button said. "The team told me a lap time to follow so that we could be sure of keeping the tyres alive long enough to stay on a one-stop schedule, but it turned out that they lasted a lot better than we thought and that I could have been going a lot quicker."
There was a happier story for Paul di Resta, however. After another race for which misfortunes beyond his control led to him qualifying only 17th, with his Force India team-mate Adrian Sutil claiming eighth on the grid, the Scot started on the medium compound Pirelli tyres and drove a beautiful if unobtrusive race to finish seventh. Of the four drivers to start on those tyres, he ran the longest, maintaining competitive pace right up until his stop to switch to the supersofts on the 56th lap. He was able to stop without losing a place, which was fortunate for the Silverstone-based team as Sutil dropped from eighth to 10th after serving a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags as Hamilton, (below) and Fernando Alonso lapped him.
"It was a great race and the car was strong throughout," Di Resta said. "After all the problems recently, it's good to get a decent result."
As the argument over in-season testing still rumbles on, Mercedes and Pirelli will be called to explain themselves to an international tribunal at the FIA on 20 June. The teams have approved plans, via the Sporting Working Committee, for testing to be legal again during the racing season in 2014.
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