After McLaren’s decent showing at Monza, they were hopeful of a strong result at Singapore, but it simply wasn’t to be as the team suffered just its second DNF of the year. It was also a race which took its toll on Kevin Magnussen, who was visibly exhausted after the race.
The race was one of attrition, and was an opportunity to get big points with Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes barely turning up to the race. However a combination of Jenson Button’s car giving up not long before the end of the race, Magnussen’s car overheating his drink bottle and a superb recovery drive from Sergio Perez who lucked in after a safety car saw McLaren slip behind Force India once again in the constructors’ championship.
McLaren Singapore GP Review
No. 20 Kevin Magnussen (DEN)
Grid: P9
Race: P10
“It was the hardest point I have ever had to work for” was Magnussen’s summary of his longest race to date. He outqualified Button yet again and has been in the top 10 on lots of occasions this season. He made an opportunistic pass on Felipe Massa at the start but went off of the track. Massa went past when Magnussen made a mistake later in the lap – although several other cars (including Button) made their way past too. He was in the Pérez/Vergne/Räikkönen/Bottas/Hülkenberg joust right until the end but scraped a point when the Williams driver’s tyres imploded.
BTW some newspapers say I had burns and had medical treatment for it. That’s a bit exaggerated, I was just hot and sweaty! 🙂 #notdead
— Kevin Magnussen (@KevinMagnussen) September 21, 2014
No. 22 Jenson Button (GBR) Grid: P11 Race: Retired on lap 52 (power box) Button failed to reach Q3 yet again, but calmly made his way through the pack during the race. The Brit found himself in a pretty solid seventh in the closing stages of the race when the car essentially went into the ‘blue screen of death’ mode. The car failed to restart and Button was out of the race, costing what turned out to be incredibly vital points as we head into the closing stages of the season. He will be hoping for better at Suzuka, a track where he won brilliantly in 2011, taking a very emotional victory after the earthquake and subsequent tsunamis that struck earlier that year. The McLaren car worked pretty well around Silverstone, so there is no reason why McLaren should be miles off the pace at Suzuka, a similar style circuit. It will be Magnussen’s first visit to the legendary circuit, but Button always seems to thrive there, so they will be hoping to take some serious points and more importantly hope to claw back the deficit to Force India.
Such a shame we didn’t get a result today, felt like P6 was on the cards. Great job by the whole team in tough conditions, mega pitstops….
— Jenson Button (@JensonButton) September 21, 2014
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