It seems you still dont get it...Lewis will be much much faster than Jenson throughout the season. In my mind there are only 2 drivers out there that could give Lewis a run for his money;

Nando & Vettel

Lewis even admitted that Nando was the fastest team mate he has ever been paired with

Only if he is given a dominate car.

What Jenson needs is a car built around Hamilton and to get into it.

All this pussy footing they have been doing around Button at McLaren for the last 3 months has been nothing short as disruptive to the competitiveness of the McLaren. Get the car built around Hamilton, then we will see a mean machine again.

Most are very harsh on Jenson.

It's clear that everybody was finding their way in terms of how hard to push it and the new, rather crap track didn't help overtaking... that allied to the fact that Lewis is a very fast learner and he had a better rub of the green.

I'm glad that this race has shut up the "Hamilton: The original destroyer of tyres" brigade, but I don't think that you conclude that Button is as shite as Heikki on just one performance. Afterall - usually when Hamilton was running in 3rd, Heikki was typically pulling his todger, trundling around in 10th or 12th or somwhere like that.

Ignoring the hysteria and just plain ridiculous posting by some - it is clear Jenson has a big problem this year and it isnt Hmailton - it is the fact that your position in quali is pretty much where you finish the race less any p[laces you can make up off the start or due to others misfortune.

Jenson doesnt seem able to put it together in quali but this seasons rules now mean he isnt going to overtake on track or during refueling so he is pretty much stuffed.

Given the total lack of overtaking he did all he could today from his grid position - it doesnt matter if he took it to easy or whatever - he wouldnt have got past the car in front.

and to the poster above - no one "destroyed their tyres" - they were all surprised how well they lasted so any advantage Button may have had there was negated.

Even in the Brawn once his Double Diffuser advantage was lost he did not qualify well either. It is all well a good to proclaim "I can look after my tyres" when they can all look after their tyres, not just Hamilton, ALL of them, so that so called advatange is gone.

The only advantage a team can pull off over the rest of the pack is if they can build an aggressive car for an aggresive driver, otherwise we are deemed to a pretty boring formated season.

I don't know where you're pulling out these figures from. Heikki was faster than Hamilton in Bahrain 08, forced him into a crash in FP, and finished ahead in the race.

This was all incredibly predictable a long time ago by any smart fan. Button's weakness is qualifying, which means he will barely ever be able to compete with Hamilton. And the 'smooth driving' advantage talked up by Button fans ignored one critical point. It ignored whether Hamilon could simply drive smooth if he needed to. And looks like he can. Don't be surprised if Button never out qualifies Hamilton all season.

Based on what? One race? I wish I had a crystal ball like you apparently do...

Oh, so now Vettel is top tier? Short memory syndrome is an epidemic on this forum. Vettel had a good weekend and should have won, but I remember last year when Button beat him to the championship in a very straight fight. Of course, now you'll say that the Brawn was miles better than any other car and was held back by its crap drivers... but Rubens looked pretty good this weekend against the Hulk, didn't he?

I strongly disagree, I think its more down to fact he hasn't got used to McLaren yet, and to the fact that Hamilton is an EXCEPTIONAL driver that can make other drivers look bad.

you guys getting excited about Lewis beating Button? lame. Rubens could do it a few times too during a season too. Beating Button DOES NOT make Hamilton an exceptional driver, so calm down, give Button a few races.

True, beating Button does not make Hamilton exceptional driver, but his current F1 achievements and his great drives do. And as I stated, we should wait a few races to see what's Button really capable of

Well, you would expect Rubens to beat Hulkenberg, given that he has 17 years' F1 experience compared to Hulkenberg's none. And Hulkenberg was especially poor today, even for a rookie. I think Button fans are completely in denial...he is not a top-level driver, and this will be proven time and again as the season progresses. Joining McLaren was a mistake that Jenson will live to regret.

Hamilton is an exeptional diver.

I can't image Lewis doing this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMYn6s3cKg0

No, it's based on watching F1 for 30 odd years - one can tell the quick drivers, the above average drivers and the so so drivers. If you honestly think Button will out pace Hamilton in any of the races this season then you know very little about F1.

Hamilton's quickest lap for example was a full 1/2 second quicker than Buttons....in the same car, with vibrations and overheating brakes.

For me, I don't see it as a bad thing if Jenson loses to Lewis - the boy matched Alonso in his rookie year and Alonso is right at the top in ability, so Button is just not in the same league and is expected to lose.

People that think Button will ever match Lewis' pace are deluded and they know it.

Hahaha, you gotta love that fat lug...

It could be a lot worse. Diapers, anyone?

I think Lewis will beat Jenson, he's just better, but Jensons a awesome bloke

and what ever happens he is a WDC.

Lewis Hamilton also known as destroyer of drivers dreams!

Round 1: Alonso
Round 2: Kovalainen
Round 3: Button
Round 4: ..........? (insert name here)

enough said!

Your point proves Lewis Hamilton is a blamable person...hmmm I wonder why?

FYI the double diffuser flattered Jenson's true competitive levels.

Exactly!

It seems Button suffers from the same overheating of the tires that Heikki did. It seems that mclaren is built so that the "late-breaking" style of Hamilton works better for the tires than smooth lines which Button and as I understood also Kovalainen used. Heikki didnt really seem to adapt to the car in 2 seasons, we will see how long it takes for Jenson. But no matter how much he adapts, he will never be as fast as hamilton. This is how I see it. Simplified of course but as long as hamilton is in mclaren, nobady is going to beat him, at least on a constant basis.

Hard to judge Jenson vs. Button from this race - Webber showed just how difficult in was to progress from mid pack. Hopefully McLAren will show better in Malaysia.

I think Jenson had the edge. Even though Button was lapping the same times all the time, Jensons performance with that car was better

Where on earth do you get that impression from? He said today he could have pushed the tyres more.

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I personally think Lewis is a better driver than Button but from a non-biased point of view at the end of the day, Lewis beat Button today. Its that simple.

No you´ve got me wrong. What I want to say is that Hamilton is unbelievable, incredible driver-racer. Top-notch!

The crushing has begun. Goodbye Button .

Fancy a game of Top Trumps on the subject then?

The difference bettween Heikki and Lewis was like this and it didn't get lesser during two years. Imo this is huge misunderstanding to believe that a driver in a new team wouldn't be able to extract normally. Look at Alonso for instance.

Just won't Button is too slow! He even Bull shit that he conserved his tyres too much http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82131! Button never realize himself is just too slow! As I said before, Button needs by far the best car to win races, otherwise, he is NOWHERE!

If Button cannot use the late braking system on McLaren (if there is such a thing) then it shows he is an average driver. The best drivers, Senna, Mika, Schumacher (in his prime) and even the real smooth driver Alain Prost could all brake late.

If I were team priniciple I would get rid of any driver that could not brake late, how else are you going to squeeze the best out of the car or a race.

In fact with the refuelling ban, it is the late brakers who will make any real grounds in F1 this season.

Sorry Button is going to have to pull his fingers out

I think he was racing with the mind that everyone was going to chew their tyres in front of him, and he would breeze pass (arrogance possibly), apparently he didn't use his tyres at all today, absolutely bizarre that a F1 driver would admit that. That is like a footballer admitting to not passing the ball and giving it away to the opposing team.

No, he beat him yesterday, in quali.

Starting from 8th, there was simply nothing Jenson could do. He said that he felt he'd been too conservative on his tyres, and probably he was. But if he'd pushed harder, he would have only run a little bit closer to the guy in front.

Someone commented that Jenson fastest lap was slower than Lewis' fastest lap by about half a second - I haven't checked that but it's irrelevant anyway. The only reason the gap wasn't greater, was because Schumi decided to go a bit faster towards the end of the race, probably hoping he could catch Vettel.

It looks like my worst fears have been realised, overtaking is impossible and the race order at the end of the first lap is the final result, barring overtaking in the pits and mechanical problems.

It's actually worse than before, drivers don't even want to follow closely in case their tyres or brakes suffer.

It looks like McLaren, and maybe Jenson in particular, need to forget about race setup and get the quali right. That's what matters this year. Both the Mercs were dead slow in the race, but nobody was likely to overtake them on the track.

Jenson locked his tyres about 3 times when webber was chasing him, was this the conserving of the tyres part?

I do think he makes too many excuses, yesterday in Qualifying was Bad traffic, something was wrong with the car, the bump in sector 2.

Today it was pitting too early, he wanted to conserve his tyres. I hope he does well in Australia because i do want to see Button really go for it, we know now that the tyres will last the distance fine so drivers may push a little more. hopefully Lewis can put it in the top 3 for Quali and Jenson will have no excuses, unless some Kangaroo distracts him.

I hope he does do well in Australia because if he doesn't, but still manages to come up with explanations other than "I'm a little slower than Lewis", it will start getting embarrassing.

Actaully, Button may complained that Nicole is too sexy in the McLaren pits and that's why he got distracted!

I think we should leave off Jenson, lewis is fast, one of the fastest ever maybe, so his team mate is always going to be slower otherwise Lewis isn't that great.

Well a lot of people really seem to be on him, like they've been waiting eagerly for this to happen. Almost like they have something against him and couldn't wait to start laughing at him finishing behind Lewis.

The gap between Button and Lewis was far greater than other teammates
for example Schumy and Roseberg

The gap between Webber and Vettel was worse, and there was no excuse for it to be so, apart from Webber getting it extremely wrong. Vettel had mechanical issues and he still could not catch him. At this point, I can see Kimi joining Vettel very soon next year.

Is Button making excuses? I don't get the animosity here. The guy is one of the most forthright drivers on the grid and actually gives us some information about what happens on track. Yes, they were surprised by how well the tyres held up - perfectly understandable considering no one has run in heat like this yet with the new cars. Hell, that's not even the only surprise - McLaren as a team miscalculated on the level of downforce they needed at this track. Why? Because they have a brand new car and the track has been heavily modified. A lot of variables...

F1 is a complicated sport, both for the teams and the drivers. People on BBs like this one tend to try to oversimplify it and think some drivers are just "fast" and others are "slow" without really thinking about what that means. This isn't a "show up at the kart track with your buddies and see who sets fast lap" kind of sport. It's about finding the best setup that will allow you to drive a quick qualifying lap but also give you consistently quick lap times over the course of a race. This is done in a short amount of time even as the team is trying to get development data. Oh, and conditions can change (wind, temperature, rain) and render your data less useful at any time. Even the qualifying lap isn't as simple as it appears - the "out lap" is often just as important to make sure your temperatures are right and the tyres optimum performance lasts for the entire Q lap (and also that you're already in it when the lap starts).

That's because Lewis jumped Rosberg in the pit stops.

If Lewis had remained stuck behind Rosberg, he would have finished a couple of seconds ahead of Jenson.

Of course, he might have overtaken Rosberg on the track... do you think?

I don't think anyone has anything against Button, it was just ridiculous for some of his fans to suggest that he might match Lewis in the same car. They claimed Button was a better racer, managed his tyres better and his smooth style would be more than a match for the 2008 WDC. They also claimed that it was his speed the won him the WDC last year when most suspected the Brawn DD gave him the advantage over the rest of the field.

I like the guy and hope he does well, but his fans shouldn't compare him to Lewis on ability.

You've lost me, what is your point?

IF Hamilton was not stuck behind Rosberg when he made his mistake, he would have been much closer to the Ferrari's, IF hamilton did not lie to the stewards in Australia he would of had a better season, F1 should not be about IF BUTS and MAYBE's it is simply about the END result and accept that.

Sorry but IIRC, unlike members like Timba, most of Jenson's fans didn't claim Button was a better racer at all. And the 'smooth' talk.. come on, yes, Button drives smooth, but it's always a wait and see game wether the tyres and track suit that style.

I think it's ridiculous to say the DD won him the WDC. It's always about the complete package, so that's just silly.

Its just a bit of gloating and nothing more. A lot of the more die hard Hammy fans, really felt it was an affront to compare Button with Hamilton. The reality is if Hamilton was not stuck behind Rosberg, the gap to Button would have been seriously embarrassing. What I saw today was the same kind of gap Hamilton regularly left Kovalainen by, only to hear excuse, after excuse, after excuse. I honestly believe Malaysia and China will give us the real state of play between Hamilton and Button. Overtaking was near on impossible, so Button escapes a barrating from me. Lets see what happens in Oz.

Jenson seems to be a good guy, just a little arrogant and deluded. I wish him no malice, I think he is a great asset for McLaren.

You are right....I think some Ham. fans have just been too pissed off with remarks of folks like Timba who over the last months keep going on about Jenson's silky smooveness and his superior race craft and how Lewis will chew his tires etc...and cant wait to dig in.

But when you look at Jenson's performance on its own, he did ok... atleast much better than some of Heikki's going backward in races.

Its only in comparison to Lewis that he looks a bit bad, that wasnt necc. unexpected...but I say I still see signs if we improve the car, Jenson will be capable of achieving 1-2s in the race with Lewis ....and being much more of a threat to the Ferraris and Red Bulls than Heikki could