Wehrlein: It was a silly move by Button

Pascal Wehrlein was forced to miss the first two races of the season due to a back injury sustained in the Race of Champions now, after a crash involving Jenson Button during the Monaco Grand Prix, the Sauber driver will need to have a scan to ascertain if he has exacerbated the injury.

Button tried a move entering Portier on Wehrlein, but it was clumsy and ill timed, the McLaren clattered into the rear of the Sauber which tipped on to its side while the cockpit scraped the Armco.

Wehrlein explained, “It was scary – the brakes started to smoke and I couldn’t get out of the car, and obviously the only thing I wanted to do was to get out of the car when you see the car start to smoke,”

“But yeah, it seems to be ok. Obviously with the injury I had I’m not too sure. I touched again the head on the barrier, so I will have to do another scan next week for my back.”

“He [Button] was nowhere. Clearly this corner is no place to overtake, it was a silly move,” added the 22 year old.

Button defended the move, “I went up the inside and obviously I thought it was on because I wouldn’t have made the move. I got alongside him, well, I thought I was alongside him, but then I looked across and went: oh he hasn’t seen me at all.”

“These cars are so difficult to see out the back of – I’ve been telling the team and the FIA that this weekend. So I tried to back out of it but it was too late and we touched.”

“I’ve never seen a car go up on its side before. I don’t know if that’s the way the tyre is or just unlucky, I don’t know. Horrible to see. I wanted to get out of the way as soon as possible because the leaders were coming round.”

“Obviously I asked as soon as I stopped the car and they said he got out on his own. I saw him earlier and he obviously wasn’t very happy but he seemed okay anyway,” added Button.

Stewards deemed that Button was “predominantly to blame” as the move was “unlikely to have resulted in a clean pass,” added the stewards who handed the McLaren driver a three-place grid drop and two penalty points on his license, which he is unlikely to serve as he made it clear Monaco would be his swansong.

Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247