Jense: Points don’t matter right now

Editor

Jenson Button may have been the only driver not to finish in the points in Melbourne, but he felt it was a "good day" for McLaren.

The Woking squad's new partnership with Honda got off to a poor start during pre-season testing and that form carried over to the season-opening Australian Grand Prix this weekend.

Button and Kevin Magnussen were the two slowest cars in qualifying on Saturday and they started 17th and 18th. Well they were meant to start there, but Magnussen never made it to the grid as his MP4-30 picked up an engine problem while he was leaving the pits

Button battled valiantly and he was the last driver to take the chequered flag in 11th place despite a downshift problem late in the race.

"Points don't mean anything to us now anyway, there's so much more to achieve and to do," the 2009 World Champion told reporters. "Really, [it's a] good day for us to get to the end, [the] longest stint was 12 laps before this weekend so I think it's impressive, we're a long way off but it's a good starting point.

"I still enjoyed it, [I had a ] little bit of a battle with [Sergio] Pérez for 20 laps which was fun but after that it was just bringing it home.

"It's all step-by-step and the car doesn't feel too bad, there's so much we're doing with it which hurts the handling to look after fuel and the car which is a pity but [it's] a good starting point and hopefully more in Malaysia."