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Button rules out British GP podium
Jenson Button is not expecting to be able to end his British Grand Prix podium drought this time out, despite his strong showing in Austria last weekend.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Jul 5, 2016, 1:44 PM
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The former world champion started third at the Red Bull Ring after judging the track conditions perfectly in the wet-dry qualifying session.
Having run near the front early on in the race, he finished sixth after what was McLaren-Honda's most competitive showing since the partnership was renewed at the start of last season.
But despite the Austria performance having proved McLaren's progress, Button is not getting carried away about what he can realistically expect at Silverstone – having never finished in the top three there.
“Finishing on the podium at the British Grand Prix is top of my ‘to do’ list in F1,” he said in a team preview on Tuesday.
“I’ve achieved pretty much everything else that I set out to do in F1, but I’ve never stood on the podium at Silverstone. I really want to do that and it would feel like a victory if I were to achieve it.
“Of course, the result in Austria last week really motivates everybody, and it raises everyone’s expectations, too. It would be lovely to be able to claim that a podium this year might finally be possible, but, being realistic, that won’t be possible this time.
“But I head to Silverstone feeling hugely encouraged by our progress, and just what we can achieve as a team when the variables are thrown into the air and all the teams are left to somewhat improvise: we can do great things.”
"We still need to raise our game"
Racing director Eric Boullier shared Button's view that, while Austria highlighted how much better McLaren was now, the team was not yet at a level of deliver podium finishes just yet.
“This year we do battle with a much improved MP4-31,” said Boullier. “Jenson’s result in Austria showed that, when everything comes together, we can perform operationally at a high standard; but, equally, the issues that affected Fernando [Alonso] on both Saturday and Sunday show that we still need to raise our game on every front.
“It’s important to remember that we were able to punch above our weight in Austria, but, with so many McLaren-Honda fans in the crowd this weekend, we’ll be doing our best to pull another strong result out of the bag.”
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