The Brazilian Grand Prix will not be looked back on favourably by McLaren. They had a poor weekend by their high standards. Jenson Button most definitely won’t luck back at Brazil with any kindness. Not only were his Championship hopes squashed but on the Saturday before the race he was subjected to an armed attack. Thanks to the quick thinking of his driver nothing further happened, Button praised the police driver as a “legend”.

Lewis Hamilton’s weekend also didn’t produce much joy; he couldn’t recreate the pace he showed in practise to either qualifying or the race, leaving him to finish a disappointed fourth with his title ambitions hanging by threads. Hamilton is 24 points behind current leader Fernando Alonso with only 25 points up for grabs from the final race. So Hamilton would need Alonso to record a DNF, win the race himself, but then also need the Red Bull drivers to have either very poor races or finish well down in the points.

After the Brazilian Grand Prix, Hamilton was very downcast on his chances of any title Championship success. “If we’re not quick enough here, we won’t be quick enough in Abu Dhabi.

“The car just didn’t feel like it did in practice. Down the straights in particular I didn’t feel the ‘F Duct’ was working, I was struggling to overtake backmarkers and Fernando just shot past me.

“You can’t win with a car that isn’t fast enough”.

McLaren are also now out of the running for the Constructors title after Sebastian Vettel’s and Mark Webber’s one-two finish in Brazil, winning Red Bull their first ever trophy.

All McLaren can do now is see if they get some serious luck in the final race in Abu Dhabi, if they don’t they’ll have to work on the car for next year to stay competitive.

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