• Brazilian Grand Prix

Button bemoans soft tyre pace

Jenson Button lost out to Fernando Alonso early in the race before regaining the position in the final stint © Getty Images

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• Report:
• Webber leads Red Bull one-two in Brazil
  

• Race:
• Brazilian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Jenson Button

• Teams:
• McLaren

Jenson Button said that his lack of pace on the soft tyre prevented him from finishing higher than third in the British Grand Prix.

Button started third and held that position for the early part of the race before Fernando Alonso past him with a brilliant move around the outside of Ferradura. Button did two stints on the medium tyre and managed to match pace with those ahead before catching and passing Alonso after the final pit stops, but he said that he initially lost out due to a combination of a lack of pace and debris on the track.

"It was a difficult race for me on the softer of the two tyres," Button said. "Fernando was very close out of turn five so I covered the line in to six; normally an easy place to block, but I looked at where he was and when I looked back forward there was lots of debris on the inside - I think it was Michael's tyre and a bit of front wing - so as soon as I saw that I didn't want to drive through it. I couldn't pull to the left because Fernando was already there so I had to back out of it and just pull in behind Alonso. So that was a bit disappointing and a little bit unlucky, but I just didn't have the pace on the softer of the two tyres."

Button also said that he was pleased with the switch to medium tyres, but that he couldn't catch Sebastian Vettel despite pushing as hard as possible in the closing laps.

"We decided to put the harder tyre on for the last two stints and it worked pretty well for me, especially in the last stint when I could hunt down Fernando. Ferrari, I think, struggle on the harder of the two tyres. [I was] able to make the pass, but third was as good as we could get; I was qualifying every lap but I still couldn't catch Seb."

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