23/04/2015
NEWS STORY
McLaren has reacted to media claims that Jenson Button stormed out after he failed to make it to the grid on Sunday.
Having endured a difficult weekend, things got even worse on Sunday when the team discovered a late issue with his car that meant the Briton couldn't participate in the race.
"The team had worked prodigiously hard to try to ready his car for the race after his technical issues yesterday, but, sadly, during the fire-up we noticed data that indicated an unresolved issue originating from the electrical glitches that had struck during the practice sessions yesterday and the day before," explained team boss Eric Boullier. "We believed that there was a significant likelihood that the issue would recur in running, and would indeed eventually scupper Jenson’s race. We tried our best to fix it but, sadly, we weren’t able to find a remedy in time for the start."
Whilst teammate Fernando Alonso did start, eventually finishing eleventh, just outside the points, Button watched the race with members of the team, taking to Twitter to give his own view of events including questioning whether Lewis Hamilton was backing Nico Rosberg back into Sebastian Vettel's clutches (again) and also praising Kimi Raikkonen's tyre management.
However, according to one British tabloid, the Daily Mirror, Button "stormed out of the circuit”, "without completing his usual media obligations".
At Button and Alonso weather the current issues and insist that things are getting better, the Mirror's claim was a step too far for the Woking outfit's veteran Director of Communications, Matt Bishop, who told Pitpass: "Jenson watched the Bahrain Grand Prix on the TV screens in our paddock hospitality area, writing a series of insightful and entertaining tweets as he did so.
"At the end of the race, he and his wife Jessica left the circuit. They did so with the full knowledge and consent of the team, saying polite goodbyes as they did so. To say that Jenson 'stormed out', as a few desperate headline writers have misreported, is complete and utter nonsense."
Lies from the tabloids... we're shocked.