(McLaren Mercedes)
McLaren Mercedes Jenson Button drove a fantastic race during yesterday's Belgian Grand Prix to finish the race in 6th place after starting from 10th place to score eight points for the team who are locked in a great battle for fifth place in the Constructors championship with the Sahara Force India Formula One Team. As a result of his sixth place finish Button has helped McLaren to reclaim fifth place in the championship as the Woking outfit are now two points clear of Force India.
Ironically Button benefited after his team mate Kevin Magnussen who finished just ahead of the 2009 world championship was handed a 20 second time penalty following the race after the race stewards deemed that the Dane had forced Ferrari's Fernando Alonso off the track as pair battled for position going down the Kemmel straight so as a result of the penalty Magnussen ended the race in 12th place while Alonso was promoted to seventh place.
The result came at just the right time for Button who has yet to be confirmed with the McLaren team for next season. The 2009 champion has been with the Woking based outfit since joining them from Brawn in 2010 when he drove alongside Lewis Hamilton and beat the 2008 world champion on a regular basis.
It was expected that Button would comprehensively beat Magnussen this season after the Dane was promoted from the McLaren young driver programme but so far this season that has not been the case. In the opening race of the season Magnussen on his Formula One debut finished the Australian Grand Prix in second place just ahead of Button who finished in third.
However Button is ahead of Magnussen in the championship by 31 points. Button has expressed his desire to remain in Formula One with McLaren next season when they make the switch from Mercedes to Honda power and although McLaren chairman Ron Dennis had made no secret of the fact that he was chasing Fernando Alonso's signature for next season that door has been slammed shut as Ferrari boss Marco Mattiacci confirmed over the weekend at Spa that both Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso will remain with the Italian team next season.
McLaren Racing Director Eric Boullier has confirmed that they will have a decision about their driver line up for 2015 within the next few weeks and also confirmed that he has not held talks with his former driver Romain Grosjean who is currently weighing up his own future following a difficult season with the Lotus F1 Team.
© Ben Johnston 2014
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