Jenson Button drives one-handed to second at Hockenheim

Jenson Button’s drive at Hockenheim combined a grid penalty, a long fight through traffic and an equipment problem that made the final laps look faintly absurd. He finished second while using one hand to keep his helmet from lifting on the straights.

Button had qualified third for the 2004 German Grand Prix, another sign of BAR-Honda’s rapid progress, but an engine change cost him ten grid places. He started 13th on a circuit where straight-line speed made overtaking possible, though never automatic. Michael Schumacher led from pole, while Button began a race built around recovery rather than victory.

BAR used a heavy opening fuel load and allowed Button to extend his stints. As the pit-stop sequence developed, he climbed through the order and emerged as a contender for the podium. The strategy placed him behind Fernando Alonso’s Renault, and the two spent much of the closing phase fighting for second place.

A fast duel with an awkward problem

Button attacked repeatedly. The cars ran side by side at high speed, with Alonso defending firmly and Button searching for a route past without losing momentum. He finally completed the move at Turn 8, taking second after a contest that was cleaner and more sustained than many of the season’s processional chases behind Schumacher.

By then, Button had another problem. The strap on his helmet had loosened. Airflow lifted the helmet on the straights and pulled the strap against his throat, making it difficult to breathe. Button began holding the helmet down with his left hand whenever the car was travelling in a straight line, then returned both hands to the wheel for braking and cornering.

The image became the race’s defining detail: a Formula 1 driver at more than 300 kilometres per hour, one hand on the steering wheel and the other trying to keep essential equipment in place. It was not a technique anyone would recommend, but it allowed him to finish.

Button crossed the line 8.388 seconds behind Schumacher and called it the best race of his Formula 1 career to that point. The result was his seventh podium of a breakthrough season and strengthened BAR’s hold on second place in the constructors’ championship. He had started 13th, beaten Alonso in a direct fight and completed the final laps with a problem that made simply looking straight ahead harder than it should have been.