Button believes Monaco will ‘mix-up’ championship

2009 world champion Jenson Button believes that the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix could mix up the championship fight for the title.

Mercedes have been dominant for the first five races, scoring consecutive one-two finishes with Lewis Hamilton winning three and Valtteri Bottas winning two.

But the former driver reckons that the upcoming races in Monaco and Canada could make for a change at the race the Silver Arrows haven’t been as quick at in recent years.

Button said (quoted by F1i.com): "The great things is that we have Monaco up next.

"Monaco is probably a circuit at which they're still probably going to be very quick, but you will have the Red Bulls, Max [Verstappen] is going to be there."

Verstappen showed he had the pace last year and looked on course for a high starting position in Monaco but crashed his car towards the end of FP3 and was unable to compete in qualifying.

"If Max gets Saturday right and doesn't shunt in qualifying we all know how quick he is, and especially around street circuits," he added.

"So they'll be there fighting with them. Then we have Montreal.

"The next couple of races, definitely mixing it up and that changes the mindset of those teams and also of Mercedes' drivers.

"I think it will definitely mix the championship up."