JENSON BUTTON is hoping he turned enough of a corner in Valencia to lead to him breaking his podium hoodoo in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone next weekend.
Qualifying ninth and finishing eighth in the European Grand Prix is a long way short of what Button knows he should be achieving.
However, it represented something of an improvement in comparison to previous races as Button found a more workable set-up he feels should be better suited to the British Grand Prix’s circuit.
“In terms of the car I was much happier over the weekend,” said Button.
“Saturday I was very strong in qualifying, the car felt good, but the last run in Q3 didn’t work out.
“The race was then not as good as on Saturday, in fact it was a mess, kickstarted by a problem with the clutch I had off the line.
“After that the race was such that I could have been 15th, I could have been on the podium. You never know. You luck into that sort of result.
“Who would have thought that after a safety car sticking on new tyres (a few laps later) would be the right thing to do, as Mark (Webber) and Michael (Schumacher) did.
“It was just a very strange race, one in which we stuck to our guns and strategy. We didn’t do anything wrong, we just didn’t do anything exciting.
“But I do take something away from the weekend in that I was much happier with the balance. I think we found something.”
Whether that will be enough to propel Button into the top three remains to be seen, but he would like to think so.
It is a remarkable fact Button has never once finished on the podium in 12 attempts at Silverstone, something he would dearly love to end this time around.
Button said: “For us the next race is our home grand prix, with home support.
“A lot more importantly it’s a high-speed circuit which should suit us better than these low-speed ones, so there’s hope. I’ll be going there positive.”
The title picture, however, is fast becoming a concern, although one Button will be putting to the back of his mind in just under a fortnight’s time given the gap he now faces to Fernando Alonso.
Collecting just six points from his last five races, Button said: “Sixty two points behind Fernando, wow! That’s quite a lot.
“That’s more points than I’ve scored (49), but at least I’ve another 12 races, so although I’m a long way behind, it is still possible.
“But I’m not thinking about that. I’m thinking about going to my home race and driving a fast, flowing circuit which hopefully our car should work well on.”