Question: Jenson, congratulations on your front row start. At any stage did you think it could be pole today or realistically were you and McLaren just chasing the Red Bulls.
Jenson Button: I mean in the heat of the moment you always hope that it is possible, but the pace in Q3 was phenomenal of Sebastian and the Red Bull. In Q2 it looked like it was possible and that’s why I chose to run with two tyres in Q3 to give it a go and see if we can, but then I saw Seb’s time and thought ‘ok, we are maybe going to have to fight for second place’. But it’s nice for me. This is my best grid slot of the year. From where we were on Friday I don’t think either of us were happy with the balance and I think we have improved the car a lot and we should be happy with what we have achieved today. I think the team did a great job of really turning the car around over the last two days so big thanks to them. Also I had a little surprise when my girlfriend rocked up before qualifying so maybe that was a little helping hand.
Question: Jenson, lucky overalls the red and white for China and the dragon on them as well. What do you reckon?
Jenson Button: I quite like these. I think they are pretty flash. It has been a reasonably good day for us. Yesterday I don’t think we had the perfect balance. The car didn’t feel bad but I don’t think we were extracting the best out of it whereas today we made some good chances, especially overnight, and the car was a lot more consistent to drive. I think we pretty much extracted what we could out of it today so a big thank you to the guys for working hard and happy to be P2. It is the best qualifying of the year for me and a much better place to start the race from.
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Question: You and Sebastian were the only two who actually did a second run. What sort of tyre situation are you in and is the strategy fairly simple tomorrow. I remember in Malaysia you said the car came alive on the harder tyre at the end of the race.
Jenson Button: Well I think when you have got a quick car like we have it is a lot easier to have new sets of tyres. Obviously Lewis is in the best position in terms of tyres but Sebastian and myself have done only two laps on our other set of options, the one that would have been new, so for me it was important to get position on the grid for the race. After Q2 I thought it was possible to get pole position. Obviously that was way out of reach but I thought there was an opportunity and I felt that it was better to use both tyres in Q3 and get the best out of the car. Unfortunately the end of Q3 I couldn’t actually go any quicker. I actually lost time on my last set so we aborted it. But we are in a good pace for the race and I look forward to it around here. It is always a fun place to race.
Question: Jenson, as Sebastian said some minutes ago, he will use the KERS at the start. If he doesn’t use it in the race, is it realistic for both of you to fight for victory with him?
Jenson Button: We don’t really know what his pace in the race is going to be like. If he’s a second quicker, it’s definitely not possible to race with him, whereas if he’s four tenths quicker normally and then we have KERS, it’s possible. I don’t know. We’ve got to see where we stand tomorrow. If you’re talking about the start, there’s a very short period before turn one, it’s going to be very difficult to get past, even with KERS, if Sebastian doesn’t run it, which I’m sure they will. But during the race, I think they’re quick anyway. If you look at Malaysia, a lot of the race he didn’t use KERS and his pace was still very good.
Question: Jenson, how motivated can you be knowing that doing your best you can only finish seven tenths behind Sebastian Vettel? He seems to be unreachable; he’s been like this for the first two races and it might keep on being like this for a long time.
Jenson Button: Yeah, there are 24 of us on the grid and there’s only one person that’s ever going to be completely fulfilled with their race result and that’s the way Formula One is, it’s all about winning. We are in a better position than anyone else on the grid to challenge the Red Bulls. We should be happy with that and what we’ve achieved so far this year. This is a team that will never give up. They’ve fought for so many World Championships and they have the resources, they have the manpower and they have the passion to really fight for this and they will do everything they can to make sure that we catch Red Bull sooner rather than later.
Question: But personally, isn’t it depressing for you that whatever you do it doesn’t seem to get you closer?
Jenson Button: Yeah, but I’ve been racing in F1 for twelve years and more often than not there’s a guy up the front - he was normally wearing red. It’s the way Formula One is, it’s a very competitive sport and if you look at the last five years there’s been a different World Champion every year and we’ve got to try and make sure that this one in the middle here (Sebastian Vettel) doesn’t walk away with it this year. But it’s not depressing because you work as a team, you win as team, you lose as a team and we are just going to fight as hard as we can, to get everything out of this car and more and really take the fight to Red Bull which is tough at the moment but it’s three races in, there’s another 16 races to go - well, there’s actually 17 races to go.
Question: Jenson, do you think the DRS zone is as interesting as it was in Malaysia?
Jenson Button: The line has changed. When I woke up this morning and got in, I noticed that the DRS position has changed on the circuit. It was 900-odd meters, now it’s 750 before the last corner. 752 meters. It matters where you brake. Well, it doesn’t really, does it? It’s still pretty difficult to overtake round here, even with the DRS. A lot of it depends on the wind as well in terms of gear ratios. You’ve got to get a very good exit out of turn 13 to really tow up to the car in front and you’ve also got to be close enough to the car in front.
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