SUZUKA — McLaren’s Jenson Button will take a five-place penalty on the grid for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix thanks to an unscheduled gearbox change, his Formula 1 team has said. Report by Reuters
The Briton, who won at Suzuka in 2011, finished second in Singapore two weeks earlier, but McLaren discovered after the race that his car’s gearbox had the same problem that forced team mate Lewis Hamilton to quit from the same race.
Button is a long shot for the title — sixth overall and 75 points behind Ferrari’s championship leader Fernando Alonso — with six races remaining.
Hamilton, the 2008 champion who has announced his departure for Mercedes at the end of the 2012 season, will also have a new gearbox, but escapes any penalty due to his failure to finish in Singapore.