ABU DHABI // Yas Marina Circuit was the first racetrack to host Jenson Button as world champion, after the Briton won the 2009 title, and the venue could on Sunday have been the scene of his final race in Formula One.
Button finished fifth in the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for McLaren-Mercedes on Sunday, for his 13th points-scoring finish of the season.
McLaren have yet to announce who will drive for them in 2015, with speculation rife that Fernando Alonso, the 2005 and 2006 world champion, will return to the team for whom he raced in 2007.
Button and his teammate Kevin Magnussen, who finished 11th on Sunday, have had doubts on their futures for some months and the team have said that no announcement will be made until next month on who will race for them next year.
As there are few available seats elsewhere on the F1 grid for 2015, if Button is dropped by McLaren he would almost certainly be out of the series in which he first began competing in 2000.
On Sunday’s race, Button said: “I’ve not been treating it like a last race. You just focus on what you are doing. I always live in the moment but for people around me there is more time for them to think.”
As to his drive to fifth, Button said: “I don’t think we had much pace but made the best of what we had. That was as good as it was going to be. That’s all you can ask.”
gcaygill@thenational.ae
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