Q: Can you believe being on pole in a brand new car and now winning as well?
Jenson Button: Yeah, I mean Rubens made it sort of easy for me on the first timed lap when I was able to pull out four or five seconds in the first couple of laps. That was nice and I just settled into a nice rhythm. I was keeping Vettel’s times in check, just knowing what he was doing and just trying to pace myself. It was all looking reasonably good and then we got the first safety car and I massively struggled to get heat into the tyres. That is something we have not had an issue with before, but I was really struggling with the car bottoming and when I braked to start again when the safety car came in I locked the front left up and had a massive flat spot. It made the next stint very difficult, especially with the poor light, as I couldn’t see any of the corner exits and we were able to plough on and still put reasonably good lap times in. On my last stop I overshot the box a little bit and they couldn’t get the hose on for about four or five seconds, so that lost us more time. It wasn’t my best race I must say but I still won, so I am chuffed to bits. I know there is more room for improvement from myself and from team which is the exciting thing. I think it is just being out of practice for so long and not doing that much testing over the winter.
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Q: What about that final stint and especially with Robert Kubica on the harder tyres?
Jenson Button: I actually wasn’t worried. I knew when I came out in front of Vettel that I would be fine as I knew that we could look after the tyre. The thing with the last stint was not to push and try and see what was the best time I could do. I was purposely driving very slowly for what pace I think we could do to look after the tyres. I wasn’t turning in aggressively to any corners. I think I could have been in the mid 1.28‘s but we were taking an easy route to stop the graining because as soon as that graining starts you see what happens as Vettel lost a massive amount of time behind me and I was able to just plough on doing my mid 1.29’s when he was in the 1.30’s, so I wasn’t worried once I was out in front of Vettel and I knew we could bring it home from there.
Q: And your thoughts about Ross Brawn and everything he has done?
Jenson Button: You don’t find Ross speechless very often but the last 15 minutes I would be surprised if he said a word. When we saw him when we went up to the podium he had nothing to say. The big bear was just there speechless. It was good to see as it was a very emotional day for him as it is for us as well.
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Q: And in one week’s time Malaysia?
Jenson Button: I’m all for it. I cannot wait. It is a circuit I really enjoy and hopefully we can iron out some of the problems we had here. It is going to be a good race I think. It is never as easy as you think it is going to be and today was reasonably tough and the pace of Vettel was pretty strong. And with the safety cars it does mix up everything. Fair play to Rubens and Jarno, they did a great job to finish second and third. Some of it I am sure was the safety car and it makes it tough. Even though I am on pole, in first position, it is still not an easy place to be.
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Q: Jenson, at the 1954 French Grand Prix Juan Manuel Fangio led a one-two for Mercedes. That was the last time a team making its debut had a one-two finish. You did that today with a Mercedes engine behind you. Your emotions and your thoughts at the end of this momentous occasion?
Jenson Button: It is not just for me, but for the whole team. This is a fairy tale ending really to the first race of our career together and I hope that we can continue this way and I know we are going to fight to keep this car competitive and with the limited resources we have to keep it at the front. The whole team has done a good job and this has got to continue as this is where I think we deserve to be and we have worked very hard for this. So thank you very much to the team and bring on Malaysia.
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