Jenson Button found a glimmer of hope in McLaren 's dismal start to the Formula One season when he at least finished Sunday 's Australian Grand Prix . The Briton was last of the 11 cars that completed the race , and was twice lapped by race winner Lewis Hamilton 's Mercedes , but the 2009 world champion saw some positives . 'Today has been a good day , ' he said . 'We 're still a long way off , but this is a good starting point -- and I enjoyed the race . I even had a good little battle with Checo ( Sergio Perez ) . McLaren driver Jenson Button finished last at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix . Button waves to the crowd ahead of the race . McLaren have endured a difficult start to the season . 'Today also really helps in terms of development . If we 'd done three laps , we 'd have learned nothing , so we 've learned a massive amount by completing a race distance . ' Button missed out on a championship point but he said that was almost irrelevant after a weekend when everything went wrong for the sport 's second most successful team , who have not won a race since 2012 . 'It was also a good opportunity for me to get used to the car and to play around with it , making adjustments in the cockpit , ' said the Briton , whose longest stint before Melbourne had been 12 laps . 'There 's a lot of work still needed - on power , driveability , downforce and set-up - but we can make big strides . And , by improving one area , it tends to snowball . ' McLaren had low expectations after Button and Kevin Magnussen were the slowest qualifiers . Things only got worse on Sunday when the Dane failed to make the grid after his Honda power unit blew up on the way to the grid . Kevin Magnussen is presented to the crowd before the race , but the Dane failed to make the start after his Honda engine blew on the way to the grid . 'Even though I could n't make the start , the team can learn something from my car 's problem , ' said Magnussen , who was recalled after Fernando Alonso was ruled out on medical advice following a crash in testing . 'We can take positives from Jenson finishing the race , too - we came here to learn , and that 's what we did . Finishing is a small victory for the team - I do n't think we expected to be able to do that . `` Now we can get a car to the finish line , we can start to accelerate our learning . ' Racing director Eric Boullier also found a silver lining from a dark weekend . 'It 's not easy to find positives , but in fact there are some , ' he said . 'We can take positives from Jenson finishing the race , too -- we came here to learn , and that 's what we did . '
Jenson Button finished 11th at season-opening Australian Grand Prix . McLaren team-mate Kevin Magnussen did n't start after engine problem . Button 's finish marked first time McLaren have completed one laps this year after troubled winter plagued by reliability issues . Injured Fernando Alonso expected to return for next race in Malaysia .