• Chinese Grand Prix

Button hails best-ever win

April 18, 2010 « Post-race driver reaction | »

Jenson Button described his win in the Chinese Grand Prix win as the best of his career.

"For me, it is my best victory," he said. "Every one you win becomes your best victory but this was pretty tough conditions. It wasn't just the call of weather, it was good pace. At the end we were two seconds a lap quicker than other people. We still don't know where we are in the dry, but we will forget about it at the moment."

Whereas some said his win in Melbourne owed a lot to luck surrounding his decision to change tyres early, this time there were no such gripes. "It's not luck we came out on top today," he said. "We chose correctly in the conditions. The start was the right call, definitely, but it was slippery and we knew how quickly the soft tyres would be working."

He said his decision to stay out on slicks early on was crucial, as it was the deployment of the safety car. "If we didn't have the safety car later in the race we'd have been a long way up. The safety car definitely helped the situation for those who stopped for inters [but] ataying on dries was the right thing. You wouldn't think it was, but they were good, you just had to be a bit careful."

McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who finished second, said button drove an "incredible" race and made the better calls regarding tyres in a race which was dominated early on by a string of pit stops. "I chose very late when I was halfway around the corner and clearly it was not the right choice.

Asked about the pit-lane incident when he came out alongside Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton initially appeared bemused, saying he had no idea what the questioner was talking about. "As far as I am concerned I thought it was okay," he said. "The team were waiting for quite some time and they waited until it was the right time. As I came out I noticed Sebastian was there and he was pushing me a little bit to the right and we pushed wheels. Otherwise it was fair."

Nico Rosberg, who finished third after leading during the early stages, was another who admitted his team got the decision regarding tyres correct. "I took the advice from the team and my engineer and eventually decided to give it a go and stay out and it turned out to be really good. Out there you want it to stop raining, it was so on edge.

"That went really well and it was nice to be leading the race for a long time from there. I got a little more tyre degradation than Jenson. I made a mistake so he came by, but in general I am really, really happy it is a good step in the right direction."

Almost inevitably, Rosberg was asked about team-mate Michael Schumacher, who finished back in tenth, and whether he was now considered the team's No. 1. "From the beginning on we are even in the team, so that's not the case, "he said. "We both get the same possibilities but I am really happy with the way it is going for me."

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