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Fry: 2007 is Button's best season yet

The 2007 season has been Jenson Button's best yet in Formula One to date, according to Honda Racing team boss Nick Fry

Button has endured a miserable year with the Japanese squad, having scored just six points on his way to 15th place in the drivers' standings.

The British driver was hoping for fight at the top this season after scoring his maiden win in 2006, but the Honda RA107 car has failed to be competitive and Button has struggled in the midfield all year.

The Honda driver, however, took full advantage of the changing conditions in China last Sunday to put on his best result of the year, finishing in fifth place.

Fry reckons drives like the one he put in in Shanghai, show that Button is at his prime.

"I think it (China's performance) demonstrates a couple of things. Number one, I think it demonstrates just how good Jenson is," Fry told reporters in China.

"Ironically, for me, this is Jenson's best season yet. He's driven the best, he's acted impeccably, and I think he has impressed everyone in the paddock with how determined he's been in what is admittedly not a good car.

"It (the result) wasn't unexpected. We thought that if the weather was all wet or a mixture then Jenson could certainly score good points.

"But I think he excelled by going to the dry tyres relatively early and going at it - he was purple, purple, purple (fastest sector time). We were telling him on the radio, 'you're catching Massa, you're catching Massa, just keep going," and he did a fantastic job."

Fry said the result in China was the best Honda could have hoped for this year, and admitted it meant a lot for the team, despite being just four points for them.

"It means a lot to the team and the driver," he said. "If you can only run a mile in seven minutes, you don't try and run a mile in four minutes. You try and run a mile a minute quicker, and when you've done it a minute quicker then you go for the next minute. So there's no point us dreaming of winning races.

"The job for us is to go for ... stretchy targets, but realistic ones. You have to recalibrate yourself. At the end of last year, if we'd qualified only one of the cars in the top 10, in 10th place, we'd have been very disappointed with ourselves. But this weekend I think we were justifiably pleased because given the equipment we've got, that was a good result.

"So there is a certain amount of recalibration that you do have to do with the team. But it's also important to celebrate when you do have occasion to. Tenth place in qualifying for Jenson was a good one, and fifth in the race was just rewards. We need to celebrate that."

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