All in all, the Italian Grand Prix was a promising weekend which ultimately delivered a poor result for Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen’s fine efforts. Both drivers drove pretty good races, finishing in seventh and ninth on the road, but Magnussen’s second penalty in as many races saw rivals Force India narrow the gap in the Constructors’ Championship to just one point.
In a race with very little attrition which saw just one top car drop out – Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari, McLaren showed pretty good speed throughout the race, jostling with Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull and Valtteri Bottas’ Williams for multiple laps, so to come away with just five points is somewhat disappointing for McLaren in this crucial battle for fifth in the standings.
McLaren Italian Grand Prix Review
No. 20 Kevin Magnussen (DEN)
Grid: P5
Race: P10
Magnussen had yet another brilliant qualifying effort to edge out Button to end up best of the rest behind the works Mercedes and the Williams cars, and he had an even better start, rocketing up to second from fifth on the grid. He gradually dropped back however as the recovering quicker cars swallowed him up. Whilst against one of these cars, Bottas’ Williams, Magnussen made a very aggressive manoeuvre which gave Magnussen a five-second penalty. Even Bottas was confused as to why Magnussen got the penalty. This dropped Magnussen from seventh to tenth, which could have been 11th if Daniil Kvyat’s brakes didn’t spectacularly fail on the penultimate lap. The penalty for Spa was absolutely justified, but this penalty seemed somewhat harsh. Yes Magnussen made an aggressive move, but by no means was it malicious. At the chicane, he was only taking the racing line, as he is entitled to do as Bottas wasn’t really in front at that point.
No. 22 Jenson Button (GBR)
Grid: P6
Race: P8
This race saw one of Button’s strongest wheel-to-wheel racing performances in a very long time against his old team mate, Sergio Perez. The two were fighting very fiercely for lap after lap, but on this occasion, the Mexican came out on top. Both drivers seemed to enjoy the fight, with Button praising Perez’ apparent new-found maturity by saying “we wouldn’t have been able to fight like that last year”, it was also one of the more entertaining aspects of the Grand Prix, even if this battle was only for seventh.
Singapore is a very tough, challenging street circuit. Given McLaren’s solid performance on high-downforce circuits this season so far, I think a good points haul is certainly not out of the question in Formula One’s night race.
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