F1: Button Enjoying COTA Challenge

Formula 1

F1: Button Enjoying COTA Challenge

Jenson Button calls the new track 'brilliant and free-flowing'...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted November 16, 2012 Austin, TX

Jenson Button of Great Britain and McLaren walks in the paddock following practice for the United States Formula One Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas. (Photo: Getty Images)

Jenson Button has joined the chorus of praise for COTA at the end of the first day’s action.

Button finished FP2 in fifth place, only 0.038s down on team mate Lewis Hamilton.

“The circuit was very slippery this morning, as all new track surfaces are, particularly as it was also very cold,” said Button. “But this afternoon’s warmer temperatures meant we could get a better feel for the circuit in FP2. Turn One to Turn Nine is a brilliant and free-flowing section – particularly if the car is working well.

“Turn One is a strange corner though, with a very wide entry rather like Turn Three in India. Turn Three here, the start of the esses, is fantastic though. It’s quicker than Becketts at Silverstone. It’s very unusual to find a section of corners like this on a modern Formula 1 track. I love it.

“Nevertheless, I don’t think overtaking is going to be easy here, because it’ll be so tricky to stay close to the car in front of you. But the circuit is great fun to drive, and I hope we can put on a great race.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.

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