I said it before and i'll say it again. Jenson is nothing special. And oh so much hyped smooth driving style isn't help him one bit. This race is prove of that. I think that after this season, people won't see Jenson in a much better light than they currently view Heikki. I wonder how many will after this season will still claim that Jenson is as fast as Lewis, or that he is gonna give Lewis a run for his money on race pace. Interestingly on both stints, Button was at his worst at the beginning of them (sort of like Heikki) .Both times he dropped several seconds behind were dirty air wasn't really and issue, and only closed back up again towards the end of each stint.

Wow. It seems Button is not much better than Kovalainen.

Button deserves to be sacked! What a douche bag drive. Finishing behind Schumi who hasn't driven in race condition since 2006! Awful. No excuses for that pathetic drive.

Man this world "chump' is gonna get mugged by lewis big time. Just goes to show how good a car he had last year. Knowing Button, he'll start coming up with his little silly excuses for not being able to keep up with lewis.

Button is the epitome of mediocrity. And he is top on my list of drivers who make it into failblog. Honestly if Button were a man of dignity, he should admit to the fact on press conf that Lewis is better than him.

Jenson Button

Big request guys. Can we now please put to bed the "Lewis destroys his tyres and Button's silky smooth style will prevail" crap ... or is it too soon after just one race? Bahrain's heat is tough on tyres so I think this annoying myth should now be finally over. Button was lapping about a second slower than Hamilton all through the race. If Hamilton was in the Brawn last year, I think I can guess who would be champion.

Here's to another 18 of the same, only I hope they develop the McLaren to be the car Hamilton deserves.

Yup, Lewis is far better than either of them. Jenson has always been a second tier driver, vey fortunate to catch a WDC though.
Hope Lewis beating Jenson consistently does not cause any tension in the garage.

Button's hyped smoothness was a phenomenon invented by commentators who wanted to have something nice to say about him.

"Lewis we are happy with the tyres"
Speaks for itself

I think this kind of devalues the world championship last year, BIG TIME. As I always thought.

Hilarious to think that Kevin Eason of the 'Times' put Button about 7 places ahead of Hamilton on talent.

Button in his interview was already making excuses saying he needs to set the car up more to his style. McLaren ought to focus on Hamilton now period!! If they don't that will show incredibly bad management.

Anyone still thinks that Button has a chance against Hamilton?

I wonder what will be the excuse button will say today...

calm down, he just had one race at McLaren.

No, and I have never believed so.

Button is actually pretty average, he was beaten in F1 by his first three teammates.

Hamilton actually matched Alonso in his first season, and Alonso is a top driver.

Where are the Button fans? A rude awakening for some I imagine. If Hamilton never made a mistake and kept ahead of Rosberg, Button would have been 30+ seconds behind. That Brawn must have been a f**king rocketship.

And what about the stupid Castrol ratings now that we've seen the real Button

Wow, some real knee-jerk reactions here. One race and Button is crap? Seriously?

I actually watched the race along with the live timing, and if you were paying attention you'd have noticed that Button never had clear track. Lewis came alive once he got by Rosberg, but before then he was much slower. Jenson managed to get by Mark Webber in the pits but was stuck behind Schumi for the rest of the race. He easily closed down the 4 sec. gap to Michael, but passing on the track wasn't possible.

McLaren needs to sort out their qualy issues, and I think they will. This weekend I think they miscalculated a bit on the aero side and didn't have the downforce they needed (that can happen with a modified track).

As for Lewis versus Jenson, I'm pleased with both of their performances today. Lewis did a nice job to get Nico in the pits and was a bit fortunate to get third instead of fourth due to Seb's problem. Button did well to beat Webber and pressured the Mercedes cars.

Awesome job there from Lewis. Pretty poor job all round this weekend from Button, but the car is clearly not a race winner even in Lewis's hands yet. A pretty solid 1-0 so far. 18 more to go.

That is a bit harsh, the refuelling ban is bad for F1 and offers nothing for the sport. It is obvious a good qualifying spot matters more than anything else today.

My gripe simply is and always have been McLaren redirecting a lot of things off Hamilton to benefit Button, that was a mistake, anything that benefits Hamilton will benefit another driver looking for a competitive car and who can handle a competitive car, Hekki couldn't Button can.

It is time for McLaren to place Button in a corner, get the focus back around Hamilton, develop their car properly and then share the data asap with Button.

Button was so off the pace but Hamilton did a big mistake today by losing a place to Rosberg at the start of the race. However he did well to recover and with some luck he got the third place. If he didn't get stuck behind Rosberg, he could be fighting against Massa.

Jenson Button. A number 3 driver in a 2 car team.

Button finished 22 seconds behind Lewis...I'm afraid that is pretty embarrassing. To be honest he didn't look that much better than Kova. The problem for McLaren is that Button tends to let his head drop when things are not going well, so I think his performances will only get worse as Lewis's get better. Which is not good for McLaren's WCC aspirations.

Jenson should thank his lucky stars he had that Brawn last year.

One race really doesn't mean anything. I have a feeling that this might be a sign of things to come though, with Lewis ahead of Jenson for most of the season. The current world champion just wasn't all that convincing and I'm struggling not to think that I was right in my highly negative opinion of him.

Kova would crush Button...

Nice comment from Niki Lauda in RTL about the relative strenght after the 1st race

RedBull (Vettel)
both Ferraris
Lewis
both Mercedes
Button (+McLaren, he sees McLaren behind Mercedes)
.....
Lewis has deserved his 3rd place, because he was the only one constantly pushing from behind.

I don't think you were really watching live timing, he was 6 seconds behind Schumacher before the pit stop. The fact is he could not get right behind Schumi while Lewis was always up behind Nico who was a lot faster than Schumi.

Yes, Lewis gets the nod this weekend. But this is exactly the conditions in which I expected Lewis to have an edge on Jenson... a car that's not quite sorted. I think McLaren will be much better in Australia, so it will interesting to see how to two compare there.

The main thing is that Hamilton tried, Alonso and Hamilton both made a mistake this weekend and then gained massively afterwards, Alonso fans cannot ask for more, and me as a Hamilton fan could not ask from more from Hamilton, all I can ask for is for McLaren to pull their fingers out...cannot believe I said Hamilton

Except that he was behind Mark Webber before the pit stop.

Schumacher and Hamilton pitted a lap before Webber and Button, so there was no chance of jumping Schumi (pitting first is an advantage now remember).

It will be interesting but I don't think Lewis will be beatable for Button. It's not like Lewis will gain less from a quicker car than Jenson.

And i as a fan o both drivers am extremely happy .

Kudos to Hamilton for third place .

cheers.

I agree. Jenson wasn't that impressive today but it think it is way too early to write him off. It's just ONE race and things could easily change. Button needs to step up though if McLaren have any chance of challenging Ferrari!

yeah surprisingly no one here anymore?

Races like that come down to qualifying, Button is simply going to have to qualify better otherwise he will be stuck behind other cars and well off the pace. I am certain, despite everything, if Button was not stuck behind schumacher or Rosberg he would have pulled away like Lewis did once he got infront of Rosberg.

The good thing is, is that the tyres look good so I expect the drivers to push them a little bit more.

This is a plain illogic stupid post. Nico is just ~4s ahead and you you say he is a lot faster than MS. Pathetic!
Actually MS was closing on Rosberg at some stage of the race.

Jensen is truly great when the car is perfect, Lewis isn't anything like as smooth as Jensen but drives around problems.

Yes but there was a 5 second gap from Webber and he was lapping almost a second slower than Lewis who was stuck behind Nico. The point is he had clear air and he was far slower than Lewis who was stuck behind Nico.

Either Jenson's car was sabotaged

Can someone explain how he was lapping 1sec slower than the other McLaren

Some of you guys are like Vicious Lions that seriously need to get out more, calling Jenson names because he had a not so good first race for McL which mainly came down to his shit qualifying is very very sad. Calm down, he will have better races.

Really good drive from Ham today, nice Podium.

1 - 0 to the Hamster

But the point of bringing in Button was because of the so called "Kovalainen" under performance . Remember Melbourne 2008? It would have been a 2nd place for Kovi if it hadn't been for a safety car. Yet Kovi managed to finish 4th on his debut for McLaren & finished on the podium in the very next race at Sepang. And the mp4-23 was not a world beater.

He is the reigning world champion FFS!!! This is not the kind of a drive you'd expect from a world champ. I refuse to accept all those silly excuses of getting used to car blah blah. Look at Alonso, look at Schumi relative to their team mates.

If I were button I would seriously be contemplating moving elsewhere. Man if button continues to perform the way he's doing now, he''l end up as the joker of the year.

Eddie Irvine was right all along. Lewis will murder Button

coz Lewis was driving the other car!

I think I need a new television.

In the race I watched Hamilton lost a place at the start, and was lucky to get it back 'cos Button (legitimately) blocked Nico's exit from the pits; he then passed a broken Red Bull...
Meanwhile Button held his place at the start and was lucky to pass MW in pit-stops. Neither of them passed a healthy car.
Now that can't be right - otherwise how could one of them be a superstar and the other deserve the sack?
Weird.

Wrong again. Button was 1.2 seconds behind Webber the last full lap before they both hit the pits. He closed that up to a half second as they entered the lane and then the boys got him out in front of the Red Bull.

I'm not making any excuses here but you have to realize pace between driver will be different because drivers will push at different times.
You could tell When Jenson was pushing and when he wasn't it was easy to see, whenever he pushed he cruised right up to the back of the drivers ahead of him which for most of the race was either webber of schumi and then got stuck. Lewis had massive time in that race in clear air hence the big gap at the end of the race.

Wow the champ was down today. Hopefully he won't be TKO with a 3x knockdown by the end of the 3rd race...

Just one race.. and stuck in traffic but still, he didn't seem to have any fighting spirit out there today.

Jenson is great in a good car, and pretty mediocre in a car that is not better than the rest, give him a fantastic McLaren he will do well, but McLaren aren't going to get a good car by redirecting the team off Lewis, the car is not going to be hot until the team works around Lewis and then Button will get that machine he is looking for.

For sure, Lewis is a better driver.

Fighting spirit? Who did have it today? As Schumi said after the race "passing was impossible today".

I didn't see much fighting spirit from anyone to be honest. Button lost this race yesterday, not today. Nobody upfront was able to overtake during the race.

Lewis was also hung out to dry by Massa at the start, and handed it well. So he did well to hold his nerve when he made that little mistake and did well altogether. I think Button and Hamilton did well from where they started and finished the race, the only ones who were poor were Rosberg and Webber, if you would ask me.

we shouldnt overreact and dismiss Button as a Kov. part 2 after just one race.

With that being said, the diff. in race pace when both were in relatively clear air was btw 8tenths and a second. thats prettey massive.

The track is a long one so that might magnify things a bit, but I dont see Button clawing away all that advantage by settling in the car better or having a faster car.

A lot of pundits have been saying Lewis will edge Button in qualy but Buttons silky smooveness gives him advantage on race day....

but Lewis is confirming like a bunch of us already knew...Lewis is fantastic in qualy but is probably more immense on race day. He was lapping at the pace of the leaders when he was in clear air with a car that is atleast 7tenths down in qualy pace.

Jenson most definitely has his hands full...

I agree with that. McLaren is 4th in strength, but Lewis makes it 3rd due to his personal performance.

Button's day was pretty much doomed from the start after qualifying where he did. I'd say his race went pretty much as well as it could have. He's not going to be as fast as Lewis, and he's still getting acquainted with the car, so I dont think he did badly today, but he certainly needs to improve in the following races because staying this far behind is not going to be acceptable. Not for him, the fans, or the team.

I just really dont want to see a lot of car excuses. He was blaming the car for being .4 off of Lewis in qualifying(which I didn't think was a bad result), but whats he going to say now? Just admit you're not up to full speed yet, Button, and it wont seem so desperate.