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Jenson Button staying in F1 with McLaren

At 35 years old, Jenson Button is hardly what you'd call an old man, but for a Formula One driver, he's ancient. So we weren't surprised when we heard reports that he was heading for retirement. It just turns out they weren't true. According to a statement released by McLaren, Button will be staying on for at least another year. The news follows a recent announcement by McLaren chief Ron Dennis, who noted that Button is still under contract, and that the team has no intention of dismissing him or letting him go early. Citing both Button's wealth of experience and his current capabilities, the announcement confirms that McLaren will not trigger the escape clause in his contract that would have allowed him to terminate it after this season. So he may not be leaving soon, but the still-new McLaren-Honda partnership will need to perform better if it's going to keep aging former champs like Button and teammate Fernando Alonso interested in continuing with the team. Plagued by teething problems, the McLaren has yet to score a single podium finish this season. It has also failed to get at least one of its cars to the finish line at nine out of the 13 races, leaving it in ninth place in the constructors' standings. That's the worst the team has performed since 1980 when it was still under Ford-Cosworth DFV power. McLaren-Honda confirms Jenson Button for 2016 01 Oct McLaren-Honda is happy to confirm that Jenson Button will race for the team in 2016. Ron Dennis (Chairman & Chief Executive Officer) said: "Jenson and I have been discussing his plans in private for the past few weeks, and the fact that our talks have led to today's announcement is very pleasing to both of us and will delight and motivate all at McLaren-Honda. "As I have made clear whenever I have been asked about the subject, Jenson's current contract is of two years' duration [2015 and 2016]. There is a 'terminate after year one' option that McLaren could have triggered if we had wished to do so, but, once it became clear from my many conversations with Jenson that he remained as enthusiastic and as committed and as focused as ever, that option immediately became an irrelevance. That being the case, Jenson will race for McLaren-Honda next year, under the terms and conditions as set out in the two-year contract that both parties entered into a year ago. "As I say, I am extremely pleased.

Race Recap: 2016 European GP was a cakewalk for Rosberg

Formula 1 teams had no setup data or tire information for the six-kilometer Baku City Circuit hosting the European Grand Prix, and that's the reason for much of the weekend's excitement. Nico Rosberg snatched pole position after Mercedes-AMG Petronas teammate Lewis Hamilton hit the wall during qualifying. When the lights went out, Rosberg put in a clinical drive way out front to score his second career grand slam: pole position, leading every lap, fastest lap, and victory. Sebastian Vettel put in a similarly lonely drive in his Ferrari to second. The German had little to do on track other than get around his teammate on Lap 28, and that came courtesy of team orders. Sergio Perez started from second on the grid, but a gearbox change after clouting the wall during Free Practice dropped him to seventh. The Mexican cut his way through the field after his sole pit stop on Lap 17 of the 51-lap race, passing Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen for third on the final lap. It's Perez's second podium in three races after finishing third in Monaco. Force India has five podium finishes in its eight-year history, and Perez's name is on four of them. Raikkonen followed in fourth. Stewards hit the Finn with a five-second penalty for crossing the pit-entry line during the race, so even if Perez hadn't passed him on track, Raikkonen would have been classified fourth. Hamilton's up-and-down weekend ended with a burst of radio messages and a whimper. He climbed from tenth on the grid to fifth in the race, then his energy recovery system began harvesting in the wrong places. The snafu cost Hamilton two seconds per lap compared to the leaders. The trouble came from a switch turned to the incorrect position, but the FIA ban on driver assistance meant Hamilton's engineer couldn't tell the driver how to fix the problem. At one point when Hamilton said he was going to reset the whole car, his engineer replied, "Um, we don't advise that, Lewis." Hamilton finally found the proper setting on Lap 43, but turned the engine down again when he realized he couldn't catch the leaders. Mercedes said that Rosberg had the same issue, but Rosberg fixed it on his own. Valtteri Bottas got his Williams across the line four seconds behind Hamilton. Red Bull teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen couldn't get their tires to work, forcing both racers to pit twice before finishing seventh and eighth.

F1 title fight gets closer | 2016 US Grand Prix recap

We ran into an old friend at the US Grand Prix: an on-form Lewis Hamilton. Reliability and proper clutch actuation helped the Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver resurrect the kind of performance we haven't seen since July at the German Grand Prix. After demolishing the previous qualifying record around the Circuit of the Americas, he put the field in his mirrors as soon as the lights went out, was never bothered by anyone behind, and crossed the finish line 4.5 seconds ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg. The drive was exactly what Hamilton needed to keep his molecule-thin Championship hopes alive. Rosberg, however, did exactly what he needed to do as well by finishing second. The German had a sketchier path to the checkered flag than Hamilton, getting pushed back to the third at the start by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo. Worse, Ricciardo appeared to have the pace to keep Hamilton honest ahead and hold Rosberg behind. Red Bull and Mercedes matched one another's pit stops, and it was clear the German would need more help to pass the Aussie. Rosberg didn't have to make his own luck, Ricciardo's teammate Max Verstappen made the luck for him. Ricciardo pitted on Lap 26, ceding second position on track to Rosberg. On Lap 30, Verstappen's gearbox failed while headed down the back straight. The Dutch teenager said the team told him to try to get the car back to the pits, so he dawdled through a few corners before following more team orders to pull over and park. Verstappen's parking spot and bad gearbox meant marshals couldn't push the car off the track, they needed to use a crane. That brought out a Virtual Safety Car, slowing the whole race down and allowing Rosberg to run a longer stint while losing less time on old tires. When the German came in for new tires on Lap 31 he emerged ahead of Ricciardo, and they ran that way to the end of the race, much to Ricciardo's disappointment. Sebastian Vettel claimed fourth for Ferrari, a placing perhaps due only to Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen retiring from the race. An otherwise anonymous weekend for the scuderia called attention to itself on race day when Raikkonen had to call it a day after a botched pit stop, and Vettel couldn't make any impression on the teams ahead. Fernando Alonso rode home to a brilliant fifth for McLaren. During the first stint while rummaging around outside the top ten, the Spaniard complained about his lack of pace. By Lap 15 Alonso was tenth, on Lap 34 he was eighth.