![\"Jenson-Button-car\"](\"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/gallery\/f1-2012-rif-images\/f1-12-drivers\/Jenson-Button-car.jpg\")
Despite a technical problem, by the end of Tuesday’s action Briton Button was almost a second clear of the rest of the field, headed by Mark Webber in the new Red Bull.<\/p>\nJenson Button and McLaren have fired the opening salvo of the 2013 world championship, stunning rivals with the pace of the new MP4-28 at Jerez.<\/p>\n
Despite a technical problem, by the end of Tuesday’s action Briton Button was almost a second clear of the rest of the field, headed by Mark Webber in the new Red Bull.<\/p>\n
“I was surprised when I saw the (laptime on the) dash,” Button said, “but the time doesn’t mean anything.”<\/p>\n
Perhaps not, but the competition was nonetheless impressed.<\/p>\n
“I could have gone at Red Bull’s pace, but not Button’s,” Felipe Massa, who was otherwise happy with Ferrari’s new F138, is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.<\/p>\n
Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo quoted Massa as saying Button’s pace was “incredible”.<\/p>\n
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel has won the last three titles on the trot, but it was Button who won the last race of the season last November.<\/p>\n
Australian Webber, therefore, admitted Red Bull has work to do.<\/p>\n
“We’re not having a grand prix tomorrow, thank god, so we’ll work hard,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We don’t know all the variables (of Button’s lap), but it was definitely very, very strong,” Webber added.<\/p>\n
“(1 minute) 18.8 is really not a slow lap at Jerez with Pirelli tyres.”<\/p>\n
Lotus’ Romain Grosjean, whose technical boss James Allison on Tuesday said the new black E21 is “swift”, commented: “It (Button’s lap) is a very fast time.<\/p>\n
“But it’s only winter testing,” the Frenchman is quoted by Finland’s MTV3 broadcaster.<\/p>\n
Some wondered if Button had used DRS throughout the lap, but he is quoted by Italy’s Autosprint: “All the teams have agreed to use DRS only on the two straights.”<\/p>\n
It was a less impressive start for Mercedes, with Nico Rosberg getting in only 14 laps before an electrical problem caused a fire.<\/p>\n
The German therefore held back a definitive analysis of the W04, but insisted: “I can guarantee you it (the car) will be a big step forward.”<\/p>\n
Massa hailed the 2013 Ferrari by saying it is on “another planet” compared to the team’s slow start last season, but at least one trackside observer was not impressed.<\/p>\n
“It is not as catastrophic as last year,” commentator Marc Surer told Speed Week, “but if you watched Massa today you could see he was having to make a lot of movement with the steering.”<\/p>\n
Grosjean was happy with his car, telling O Estado de S.Paulo Lotus has “another good car” on its hands, while Nico Hulkenberg was musing whether Sauber will – yet again – have the ‘surprise’ package of the season.<\/p>\n
“Maybe it’s a little early to say that,” said the German, “but it was a positive day.”<\/p>\n
2012 runner-up Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, spent Tuesday training on a road bicycle in a desert country, moving Niki Lauda to tell RTL he “cannot understand” the Spaniard’s decision to sit out Jerez.<\/p>\n
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