Button heads for Honda pit-stop blunder showdown

Jenson Button will hold showdown talks with Honda tomorrow after warning that mistakes are ruining his season.

Button was a lowly seventh in today’s San Marino Grand Prix after a pit-stop problem ended his podium charge.

The 26-year-old was told to leave his pit before the Honda crew had finished refuelling and he dragged the nozzle off its line, covering his mechanics with fuel.

He had to stop in the pit lane while mechanics retrieved the broken nozzle, costing him 16 seconds and denying him what looked like a sure-fire third place.

Button arrived at Imola hoping to banish memories of a trying Australian race which was scuppered by a tyre problem before an engine blow. After another disappointment at Imola he will meet the Brackley-based team tomorrow to urge improvement.

He said: “We’ve got to make sure we don’t have issues like that again. We won’t be on the podium or challenging for the win if we have issues like this.

“I don’t know whether it’s luck or whether we haven’t completely got our act together. We thought we were ready for this year and we have just made too many mistakes so far.

“Hopefully we have got it out of the way. I am doing the best I possibly can but the car is not complete, there are issues we need to resolve.”

Button described the meeting as “motivational” and he hopes to inspire the team to new heights amid fears his dream of a maiden win is disappearing this season.

“I am going into the factory tomorrow so we can have a little chat about the way things are going this year,” he added.

“I’m sure everyone needs it. Hopefully it will make the difference.

“It’s not something we are shying away from. We know we have issues and tomorrow will be an interesting meeting with the whole team. Hopefully we can clear a few things up.”

But the Englishman had words of comfort for chief mechanic Alistair Gibson, whose mistake caused the pit-stop calamity.

Button’s first act after the race was to hug Gibson and he had no hard feelings after a rare glitch for his normally reliable pit-stop crew.

He said: “He’s a guy who works so hard at pit-stop, he’s done thousands of them and this is the first mistake.

“You can’t be too hard on the guy. I’m sure he’s feeling bad but he doesn’t deserve to feel that bad, we all make mistakes.”

Button was not the only Briton to leave Imola disappointed, with Red Bull’s David Coulthard capping a difficult weekend with a retirement.

The Scotsman was running well down the field when his car expired and he said: “I had a broken drive shaft, possibly as a result of something that happened after the pit-stop.

“When I pulled away I had a problem with the engine taking a lot of revs.

“It’s a shame, because although we had seen this in winter testing, it had never happened in a race so far.”