Button welcomes Webber's victory

Source: www.autosport.com

By Jamie O'Leary

Jenson Button believes that Mark Webber's victory in the German Grand Prix was actually good news to him, despite the Brawn driver finishing down in fifth place.

The Brawn driver's championship lead remained at 21 points despite his second minor points finish in as many races.

And he believes that the potential for the Red Bull drivers Webber and Sebastian Vettel to fight against each other from now on could favour him over the remainder of the season.

"My championship lead has stayed the same, although it's over a different person now," said Button, who is now 21 points ahead of Vettel while he was 23 ahead of team-mate Rubens Barrichello before the race.

"It's quite good [that Webber won] because Vettel's now got him right behind him in the championship, and they'll be taking points off each other. If Vettel had won here it would have been a disaster.

"I'm looking forward to Hungary though, when we should have a few new parts. We really need to beat the Red Bulls there."

Button said that his own race was a disaster right from the start, the world championship leader losing significant ground throughout the race after getting stuck behind the slower McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen early on.

A lack of pace on the harder option tyres- on a cool track surface that does not favour the Brawns - also restricted his progress and prevented the podium finish that Button believed was possible.

"The start was bad, cars all around me and people outbraking themselves. I got a few places back and got up to fourth with [Felipe] Massa and Kovalainen, but their pace was way off and there was no way through, so it made it a difficult race.

"Then I spent some time behind Rubens and his pace on the prime tyre wasn't good. And my pace on the option tyre was bad, because with the track being quite cool, I struggled to keep the heat in them. Then I had graining and big degradation.

"I thought we could have been on the podium behind the Red Bulls, but it was not possible."

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German GP - Sunday - Team Quotes
Jenson Button (5th): "All points are valuable but my race started badly and didn't get much better today. I had a poor start to drop back to fifth after the first turn and was able to get ahead of Massa at the start of the second lap but just couldn't get past Kovalainen. His pace was way off what we could have achieved at that point of the race but there was just no way through. We struggled with graining and tyre degradation throughout with both tyres not working well for us. The problem with the fuel rig at Rubens' second stop also affected my race as we were so close on the track and he was struggling with the prime tyre. So overall it has been a tough and disappointing day for the team. Congratulations to Mark on his first win and I'm really pleased for him as I know how good that feels. I just can't wait to get to Hungary in two weeks where we will have new parts and hopefully warmer weather to take the fight to the Red Bulls."