Jenson Button recalls the ‘weird’ accusation Lewis Hamilton made in McLaren team order spat

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Jenson Button’s partnership with Lewis Hamilton when he was at McLaren was seen as one of the strongest driver lineups.

Both the two most recent world champions having won the title in 2008 and 2009, with the 2010 season presenting an opportunity for either to add to their championship tally.

Button had made the move to McLaren after the team dropped the underperforming Heikki Kovalienen, and quickly found himself in a car that could challenge for wins.

A victory at the Australian Grand Prix after a masterstroke in strategy, and a bit of luck with Sebastian Vettel’s brake failure, set him on course for his first win with the team.

Button would follow this up with a victory in China, where McLaren introduced the F-Duct overtaking device for the first time. Later in the season another opportunity to win came at the Turkish Grand Prix, but he was denied by Hamilton.

The race would later become the first of a series of spats the pair had while at McLaren, with Button recalling how it happened in his book Life on the Limit.

Jenson Button recalls spat he had with Lewis Hamilton at 2010 Turkish Grand Prix

McLaren found themselves in contention for a race win after 39 laps when Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber collided while battling for the lead. The iconic images of the two out of control as they reached the penultimate corner depicted another impending battle, as both McLaren’s cut through to the lead.

At this stage, Hamilton was told by his team to save fuel but the same message did not reach Button. The pair would go on to battle on track, even banging wheels at the first corner, prompting the pitwall to intervene. Button said Hamilton confronted him after the race, having been told by the team he would not attack him.

“For a scary moment, it looked like there would be another Red Bull double wipeout situation, but he managed to get past me and claim the win and me in second. On the podium, there was what the media called frosty body language and muted celebration. In fact, he came straight up and asked me about it ‘Did you pass me against team orders?’ He was the winner, Jesus,” wrote Button.

“‘No’ I told him ‘because I was never told not to pass you’ That sent him off thinking the team was taking my side instead of his, although he never did explain why they would do that. It was a bit weird and the team later came clean and said he simply was given incorrect information, but it was a little more proof that all was not well behind the smiles.”

Jenson Button loses out in four-way title battle in 2010

The 2010 season will be remembered as one of the great years of F1, not least because it featured four world champions on the grid with the return of Michael Schumacher.

Button was defending his title having wrote the fairytale story with Brawn GP in 2009, and while his campaign started off well, he started to slip behind in the points.

READ MORE: The ‘genius’ design that made Jenson Button’s only F1 world championship-winning car so fast

After retiring from the Belgian Grand Prix due to contact with Sebastian Vettel, he was down to 147 points with Hamilton leading on 182 points. Remarkably, Fernando Alonso was only on 141 points at this stage and he also retired from that race after crashing into the barriers.

The Korean GP proved to be a turning point, with Alonso having won the race and finished strongly in the previous two Grands Prix he took the lead while Button was effectively out of the running.

When they reached the season finale in Abu Dhabi, four drivers; Alonso, Mark Webber, Hamilton and Vettel were all in with a chance of taking the title. Although the race proved to be an anti-climax, as Vettel took a lights-to-flag win to seal his first title, it showed just how competitive F1 can be when all the stars align competitively.