Button beats the rain at Monaco

F1 News
Date: 24/May/2012

An aptly timed lap on super-soft tyres put Jenson Button on top of the Thursday practice timesheets for the Monaco F1 Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver, one of five different winners in the opening five rounds of this year, led the way courtesy of a flying lap early in the afternoon session.

Rain then cemented the Briton’s position at the head of the timesheets by 0.392s over Lotus driver Romain Grosjean. Ferrari team-mates Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were third and fourth.

Button, eighth quickest in the morning session, said: “The most important job today was to try and get a decent high-fuel long-run on the super-soft tyre - which I don’t think anyone managed. We’ve got to see how the tyre works because its performance will play a considerable role in the race.

“Still, it was nice to briefly stick that tyre on and see how much grip it has - that gives you a bit of information to look over before Saturday, even though we’ll still get to run that compound again before qualifying.

“I definitely feel like the car improved from P1 to P2. We tried something different for this afternoon’s session and I was happier with how the car felt. There’s still room for improvement, but we know what direction we want to take.”

A Monaco winner for Brawn GP on his way to the 2009 world title, Button starts this weekend sixth in a close championship battle jointly led by Alonso and Red Bull’s reigning double title winner Sebastian Vettel.

Alonso had led the morning session, but both Button and rookie Grosjean surpassed the Spaniard’s lap time before the afternoon rain.

“We weren’t able to fit the Supersoft and only Button was able to find the right window to make the most of the Option, which is how he set the fastest time,” confirmed Alonso.

The unique Monaco schedule means a day off on Friday, followed by final practice and qualifying on Saturday.

“Now, we must see what the weather will be like on Saturday morning: if it turns out to be dry then maybe we will do more laps than usual, but even if it rains we will have to do work aimed at the race,” said Alonso.

“We can’t control the weather, we can only adapt to it as it changes. Let’s say the weekend has got off on the right foot for us: now we must try and keep going down this path.”

Vettel, last year’s Monaco winner, was ninth and tenth fastest in Thursday’s interrupted track sessions.