• United States Grand Prix

Button pleased with clean racing

Jenson Button made up 11 places from his position at the end of the first lap © Sutton Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• Report:
• Hamilton wins as title battle goes down to Brazil
  

• Race:
• United States Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Jenson Button

• Teams:
• McLaren

Jenson Button said it was good to see clean racing during today's United States Grand Prix as he fought his way up from 12th on the grid to fifth place.

A throttle sensor problem cost Button a chance of getting in to Q3 and left him starting back in the pack on the dirty side of the grid. Having decided to start on hard tyres a poor start was accentuated by a lack of grip early on and Button was forced to fight his way through the field but he praised the driving standards of Kimi Raikkonen in particular having completed a number of clean moves.

"There was a lot of action in that race, a lot of overtaking and most of it was very clean, which is good to see," Button said. "Kimi gave me room on the outside; I was a little bit surprised to find but he's fair and it's good to see. A lot of fun out there.

"Starting on the dirty side and the first lap was terrible. I think I must have been 18th at the end of the first lap. I had some good fights on the way through, I really enjoyed it. It's obviously not the end result I would like but yesterday was a tough day. Congratulations to the whole team, the car was working very well round here, Lewis did a great job and I just wish we could have been a bit further up."

Button also believes that Formula One has done all it can to entertain the American audience on its return to the United States.

"We knew we had to put a good show on; I think we did that. There was a lot of crazy action out there, which was fun. A very, very enjoyable race, lots of fighting. I hope we put on a good enough show for the American public and they seemed to be loving it; there isn't a seat empty in the grandstands and the banks are full. It's good to see the Americans have really embraced F1 and hopefully we did a good enough job for them today."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.