- Hungarian GP - Race
McLaren drivers bemoan weather gamble
Jenson Button thinks McLaren "threw it all away" by anticipating rain which never came during the first pit stop for both himself and team-mate Kevin Magnussen.
When the first safety car came out McLaren switched both drivers to intermediates while the rest of the field opted for slicks on a drying track, believing the rain was due to return at any moment. At the restart Button briefly got ahead of eventual race-winner Daniel Ricciardo but had to give up his promising position to take on soft rubber once McLaren's blunder became apparent and dropped to the back of the pack, something he says is frustrating as it was out of his hands.
"We obviously use a different radar to everyone else, because on the radar the team thought it was going to rain", Button said." I did everything right in the race and that's why it's tough when you do everything you can and fifth, at the start of the race, was definitely our position and I think I put the car in a good place and they threw it all away."
Magnussen, who emerged from the pits fifth so would also have been in a strong position on softs, admits he is happy to shoulder the blame for the decision.
"It was my call to stay on inters," Magnussen said. "The team always rely on the driver in these situations and I made the wrong decision, it's not really down to the team. The team can only say what the radar says. They are not gods, they cannot control the weather.
"I know we took a risk to wait for more rain, but I think we had to take that risk. I don't think things would've been much different if we'd made a different strategy call, but we now need to sit down with the engineers and strategists to discuss it."
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