Why are people talking about pace/speed button had, he was significantly faster than a guy without 3rd gear, on anything but an oval thats going to kill you.
HE was gaining 2 seconds a lap on Hamilton, and gaining next to nothing on Alonso. Uber new soft tyres with no fuel while everyone else was on MUCH less fresh hards and he didn't gain in the front 3 at all. One or two very good laps, that still weren't the fastest, mostly with the front 3 not trying, at all, means he was pretty slow. I mean till the final 3 laps when the Red Bulls were playing silly games trying to get the fastest lap they weren't trying, just cruising from lap 40, Alonso the same, just cruising to 3rd, Button was pushing out of his skin, on better tyres and couldn't gain on 3 guys cruising.
Hamilton on the less fresh hard tyres was gaining on Alonso a LOT faster than Button on fresher and faster soft tyres. Alonso wasn't in the dirty air yet as Hamilton gained on him, admittedly the Red bulls were being held up massively by Button so he wasn't really gaining on them. But he was certainly faster than Alonso.
Button was slower than the rest of the top 6 today, as per usual, and his strategy worked against him.
Better strategy may, just may have gotten him a position in the pits, but seriously unlikely as he just doesn't ever have the pace.
What the strategy may have done, just, is if Hamilton's gearbox hadn't gone(did button pit before or right after the gearbox went?) he could have continued to hold up the front 3 by a second or two a lap and let Hamilton gain right up on all three and frankly had a very decent shot of passing Alonso, unlikely the other two unless still stuck behind Button.
I did suggest that might have been the strategy all along as we've seen people do the whole race on hards and pit on the last lap. When you look behind Hamilton Button had he pitted in the 10th of the 52nd lap was safe in 5th spot and was never getting close to 4th. It would have been interesting if Hamilton's gear box hadn't gone, the question is was the strategy a team strategy to hold up the front guys as much as possible, or was it just Button making a pretty daft choice?
