With just eleven finishers in Australia, Jenson Button was just one additional retirement away from claiming a point for McLaren Honda.
If it had happened it could well have been described as one of the most unlikely points to ever be earned in Formula One.
The McLaren Honda struggled for pace throughout the weekend in Melbourne.
On Friday the closest either Jenson Button or Kevin Magnussen could get to the leaders was just under 4 seconds.
In the final practice session once again the best was just under 4 seconds adrift.
In qualifying both Button and Magnessen were five seconds slower than Lewis Hamilton’s pole time for Mercedes as both McLaren’s were eliminated in Q1.
On race day it didn’t start well for McLaren with Magnussen blowing an engine on the formation lap and failing to make the grid.
That left 2009 Formula One World Champion Jenson Button to take up the last slot on the grid for the Australian Grand Prix.
With Pastor Maldonado crashing into the wall and the other Lotus of Romain Grosjean having to retire for mechanical issues, Button quickly made his way up the standings.
Further retirements for Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen saw Button finish 11th, two laps down but taking the positives of completing the race.
‘We are still a long way off, but it is a good starting point, It was a good day for us to get to the end, the longest stint we had done before this weekend was 12 laps so I think that is pretty impressive. Button told Sky Sports.
?Points really don?t mean anything to us right now anyway, there is so much more to achieve and do really before we are competitive.
?There was a lot of fuel saving during the race and it was pretty tough for me out there, but I still enjoyed it. I had a battle for about 20 laps with Perez [Force India] which I wasn?t expecting ? I quite enjoyed that ? and then I was just bringing it home. There was a lot of useful data there and hopefully it will give us a step forward in Malaysia.?
Vital talking points: AusGP – McLaren
