Burning Rubber: Button must regret boring race prediction

If ever anybody wished they could eat their words, however distasteful, Jenson Button must surely top the list right now. The currently disenchanted former champion, bemoaning yet another unimpressive qualifying session in Valencia for the European Grand Prix, blathered unwisely in a TV interview: “It won’t be an exciting race. You can’t overtake here.” Whoops! What happened next for the sell-out crowd and the multi-millions watching on television was a memorable show that turned out to be an incident-packed thriller, the season’s stunner so far. Button later tweeted an abject apology for what I suppose in hindsight he would describe as reflex remarks. Too late, the verbal damage had been done. As if to counter the McLaren man’s slip of the tongue, the F1 cast of daredevils set about putting on a truly great grand prix around the harbour-side circuit. In fairness to Button, a likeable character in the main, the Valencia venue had a reputation as a yawn-inducer with little or no opportunity for overtaking and without the input of excitement to get people jumping off their seats. Wrong! And it just goes to prove you cannot afford to prejudge any grand prix based on its standing reputation. It was, as the saying goes, a turn up for the books. A crash-bang-wallop fest, an exhibition of ill-rewarded boldness and skill, carelessness, bullying and downright disregard for safety, side-by-side, wheel-to-wheel at 200mph. It was full of heroes — one in particular, Spain’s national icon Fernando Alonso, the victor — and just as many villains. Heavy fines and severe penalties peppered the action and bad feeling, too, among drivers, who were harshly and crazily treated by their rivals in close encounters of the scary kind. Revenge, in whatever forms it takes, could be on the agenda in the next round at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. And I would guarantee there will be some stern warnings issued by officialdom at the drivers’ pre-race gathering. There are some feuds simmering and scores to be settled, but the stewards’ watchful eyes, the precursors to heavy fines, will be keeping a close watch for any ill-feelings left over from Valencia. I just hope that if Button makes any further pre-race pronouncements, they will bear more accurate than his last set of predictions.