On the Button

Button's inaugural victory for Honda
at the Hungaroring in 2006

My favourite F1 driver Jenson Button marked his 200th race in style with a victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix. There's something about Button that makes him a bit different from other drivers. He's exuberant without being brash or reckless, and he's a motoring purist.

When Vettel, Hamilton or Alonso drive a car, it's like they're highly skilled tamers fighting against a beast and more often than not coming out on top. It's quick, and in conventional conditions very effective, but it's seldom pretty. With Button, the car and driver become one. He is the beast. The response to a more testing track is the natural one; not a knee-jerk reaction. Button senses the grip; doesn't approximate. Where all the perks of modern technology are undermined by the elements, Jenson is the man who comes out on top. We need only look back to the 2009 championship to see how, with a balanced car he's in a class of his own.

Button victorious again 5 years on

It was fitting that Button should mark his 200th race with a victory, but all the more so at the same Grand Prix he won his first F1 race, and in mixed conditions then too. Here's to another 100 at least and hopefully a decent stab at the title if not at the tail end of this season, then next.