McLaren’s misery mounts during Formula 1 testing

McLaren;-Jenson-Button

McLaren and driver Jenson Button of Great Britain had more problems during preseason testing. (Manu Fernandez/AP)

MONTMELO, Spain — McLaren’s misery mounted after another malfunction left Jenson Button stranded Thursday as Felipe Massa steered Williams to the fastest lap during Formula One preseason testing.

A hydraulic leak that McLaren says will require it to change its new Honda engine limited Button to a session-low seven laps and slowest lap time.

McLaren’s latest setback came four days after Fernando Alonso crashed, ruling the Spaniard out of the final tests with the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in less than three weeks.

Massa clocked the fastest lap so far through five combined days of running at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit with a time of 1 minute, 23.5 seconds.

Defending champion Lewis Hamilton only got in half a shift due to problems with his Mercedes.

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