Friday 21 November 2014

Tough day at the office for Jenson Button and McLaren

Jenson Button comes out of the McLaren garage.
(McLaren Mercedes)

The McLaren Mercedes Formula One team endured a day of mixed fortunes on Friday at the Yas Marina Bay circuit in Abu Dhabi where Kevin Magnussen finished the opening session in eleventh place while Jenson Button finished the session down in 17th place following a suspension failure. 

In the second session, Button had a hydraulic issue and then had a brake pedal problem however despite that he had finished the session in eighth place just behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. The 2009 world champion finished the session 1.390s behind pace setter Lewis Hamilton. 

While Button finished in eighth place Kevin Magnussen finished the day off as a best of the rest behind the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg just 0.782s behind Hamilton's fastest time. 

The McLaren pair head into Sunday's Grand Prix uncertain of what their Formula One future's hold with the Woking based outfit having once again delayed their driver announcement. The team were expected to confirm their line-up following Sunday's Grand Prix however they confirmed earlier this week that no announcement will come before December 1.

The team have also confirmed that they will run they will conduct a full test with their interim MP4-29H 1X1 which made it's track debut at Silverstone last week with Oliver Turvey and Stoffel Vandoorne at the wheel. 

It is expected that the pair will once again be behind the wheel during the two day test. The Woking based outfit were trialing a new front wing on Kevin Magnussen's car on Friday the first part completed by Peter Pedromou since his arrival at the team in September so they will be hoping that the new wing can help them finish the season in as strong a position as possible if they choose to run the wing in qualifying.

© Ben Johnston 2014

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