Question: Jenson, what a race. Another great call for tyres at the start, a safety car re-start for you to control and then some heart-stopping moments in the final laps.
Jenson Button: I mean the safety car for clearing debris off the circuit was just… I had my heart in my mouth when that happened as I just did not know what was going to happen. We had built up such a good gap and then, unfortunately, everyone else caught up, so it made it very tricky. At the end of the race when we put the inters on, the new set, I felt really good. The car felt great and I wasn’t pushing the tyres too much. I could see I was pulling a gap to Lewis and then it started racing again. I made a mistake at the hairpin and ran wide and from then on I just could not get any heat in the tyres and every bit of water I touched I aquaplaned, so I really had to back off. This victory is very special and really means a lot. It was a tricky race out there and again we called it right and it means a lot. It is not just about being quick, it is about reading the conditions and obviously coming across the line just one second in front of Lewis I think shows what a team effort this has been and what a great result for the whole team.
Question: Jenson, the World Champion leads the World Championship table after the first four races. Take us through some of the highs and maybe some of the lows of your time at McLaren so far.
Jenson Button: I think you can pick the highs and the lows out pretty easily. I have had two wins and a seventh and eighth, so you know. The tricky conditions helped me but as I say again it is not luck we came out on top today. We chose correctly in the conditions. The start of the race, as Nico said, was you know… It was the right call definitely but it was very, very slippery out there. But we knew how quickly the soft tyres were going to destroy themselves, the inters. So the right call and later in the race the right call as well. My first few months with the team have been extraordinary you could say and I really feel a part of this team now. It is a nice position to be in after four races, leading the championship. Three weeks break now. I am going to enjoy that very much and I am looking forward to Barcelona.
Question: Jenson, it was a pretty amazing race for us. What was it like from where you were Jenson?
Jenson Button: Pretty damn good I must say, except for the last four laps. They were a little bit scary. It was raining a lot at the end and I was really struggling with the tyres. I pulled a good gap on Lewis but maybe I pushed the tyres a bit hard and when it rained I was just skating all over the place and as you saw, I went straight on at the hairpin. Made it difficult for myself but great to come away with a victory.
Question: How important was that early call on tyres, do you think?
Jenson Button: Really important. That made the race. If we didn’t have that safety car later on for debris we would have been a long… well, I don’t know, I don’t know how quick Lewis was in the race. But the safety car definitely helped the situation for people that stopped for inters. Staying on the drys was the right thing. You wouldn’t think it driving around as it was raining quite a bit but we got a lot of grip from those tyres. We just had to be a little bit careful as every time you arrived at a corner it was a different condition to the previous lap, either better or worse, so it was pretty tricky but it was definitely the right call. When the team called me in for inters that was the right call as well because the tyres had started graining on the front left and the rear left and it was too wet for the slicks.
Question: Where does this victory rate amongst the other ones?
Jenson Button: For me it is my best victory. Every time that you win I think it becomes your best victory but this one was very special as it was very tough conditions and the great thing is our pace was good today. It wasn’t just the luck of calling the weather, we had good pace. The team towards the end of the race said ‘you are two seconds odd quicker than most people except for Lewis who was doing the same time as you.’ The pace was very good in those conditions and it is great to see that. We still don’t know where we are in the dry but we are going to forget about it at the moment as we are just going to enjoy this victory in the wet. We have proved that our car is good over the race distance.
Question: People were talking perhaps about going onto wet settings, going onto dry settings. Was there any difference for you?
Jenson Button: I didn’t do wet or dry settings, so I don’t know.
Question: But in terms of yesterday, did you set the car up for today?
Jenson Button: You want to be quick in qualifying. That is so important these days, so you work on getting a good set up for qualifying but you also need a car that is good in the race. Cars that are good in the dry normally work in the wet as well, reasonably well. I think you have got to go for a general balance of wet and dry. It seemed to work for us. I don’t know the pace of the other quick cars that were quick in qualifying but for us it looked very good. We were able to pull a good gap, cruise a few laps before it started raining, then I had my heart in my mouth while I was trying to keep the thing on the road.
Question: Jenson, how satisfying is this to get one over Red Bull? They sat where you are yesterday, very pleased after qualifying, and you both said on Friday that you suspected that they could go a lot quicker. How satisfying was this?
Jenson Button: I don’t think it’s just because Red Bull were sat here. It’s always massively satisfying when you win a Grand Prix, it means so much, and when you get a one-two with the team. It’s been a long time for myself and it’s been a long time for Lewis, I think, since we’ve had one-twos. So yeah, it’s a very special feeling and I can’t wait to get back there and see the team. They do so much work over the weekends and I can’t wait to get back down there and see them. This is a great result for us, and I’m leading the championship now. Red Bull have been very quick all year, like they were last year at the start of the season, but we’re leading the championship at the moment which is a great position to be in. There’s still a lot of work to do to find some pace but that’s what we’re working on, we’re working very hard and it’s great to get these results when maybe we haven’t quite got the legs on the Red Bulls, so these points mean a lot to us, and hopefully when we get to Barcelona, we will be there fighting with the Red Bulls in qualifying and the race.
Question: Jenson, it seems that your tactics were quite similar in Australia and in Shanghai and you have had good fortune in both. It seems you are good at start strategy; was it similar in Australia and here?
Jenson Button: I don’t know. It’s a difficult one to answer but I felt that it was the right thing to do, to stay out. A few other drivers did it as well. I wasn’t alone in that one. Yeah, I’m sure I will make the wrong calls as well. It doesn’t always happen that you get the right call. Sometimes you’ve got to take those risks and that’s what we did and it paid off again.
Question: As we all know, this is the last year of the contract between FOM and Shanghai and maybe this is the last time you are appearing here. What is your deepest impression of Shanghai?
Jenson Button: I like this circuit. It’s never going to be our decision whether we’re racing here next year, but I think you guys have done a great job with this circuit and I think that the facilities are pretty special, there aren’t many circuits like this. And I think you’ve had some great racing here. You’ve had a different winner every year since this Grand Prix started so yeah, I think it’s a great Grand Prix, but it’s not my decision and I don’t know the ins and outs of the situation, so it’s unfair for me to say whether it should be on the calendar or not.
It’s also great to see so many people here. The grandstand was pretty much full today, which assumes that the sport is getting bigger and bigger here in China which is very good to see.
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Formula 1: Jenson Button Wins Nail-Biting Chinese Grand Prix For McLaren
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