Hungary: He deserves every bit of this

By Phil Huff
August 7 2006

Jenson Button's friends in Formula One were lining up to congratulate the Honda Racing F1 driver on his first win, with his team mates being the first to offer their praises.

"I'm just overwhelmed," exclaimed Alistair Gibson, Honda Racing F1's chief mechanic (and lollipop man!) "We've hung together throughout Jenson's time with us, and we've had some bad times and blow ups, but this is the greatest day. Very emotional.

"We had a busy Grand Prix," he continued. "We were in and out with the tyres, with a lot of late calls. We did a great job in the pits and it's our pit work that got us through. We're just so focused and we never dropped the ball once. It was just really a good Grand Prix for us, and it's great to go away on a bit of a holiday now and really enjoy it."

Anthony Davidson added his thoughts, telling the ITV viewers "This is fantastic for the team, I'm so happy. You can see everyone cheering there, all my guys. This is just emotional stuff.

"Jenson did this by merit," added the team's Third Driver. "He closed down on Alonso, he was fast the whole way through the race. Jenson was clean as a whistle all the way through, never made a mistake, never slipped up, and he deserves every bit of this.

"I can't believe I was the one commentating for this race. Martin Brundle what have you done!"

"Today's a great day for Honda and a fantastic day for Jenson," commented Gil de Ferran, the Sporting Director at Honda Racing F1. "He drove fantastically well today, incredibly fast in the wet and in the dry. Our guys here on the wall made some great calls on the tyres and fuel. It's a real team effort, with everyone in Japan and England - it's fantastic."

After facing an incredibly tough year, team boss Nick Fry was clearly moved. "[This is due to] really hard work from all the Honda team, and Jenson's just been so positive the whole time and just done a fantastic job. Credit to everyone, they've all kept their heads up, they're all working hard and, hopefully, this is the first with more to come."

Le Mans racer and ITV pundit Mark Blundell joined in the proclamations, saying "It's fantastic for him. It's everything he's been striving for all of his career and he's got this win under his belt. Everyone's been a little on top of him, the pressure from the media, everyone saying he can't get the job done - well, he's proved them all wrong.

"I think it's a tremendous effort, never put a foot wrong, very smooth driving style, the Honda delivered, everything's gone his way and it's about time.

"There's a new big name in town with Jenson."