Jenson Button lamented his strategy after saving his tyres too much in the opening part of the race.
With pitstop’s now decided purely by tyre degradation and strategy, Button took the decision to drive conservatively, therefore saving his tyres for later in the race, but the team took the decision to pit him early.
“I’m a bit sad we pitted when we did because I felt I had saved my tyres a bit too much,” he told the BBC after the race.
“The last two laps on the softs I was pushing and immediately caught up with Webber. And then we pitted. I was a little bit conservative.”
He admitted it wasn’t such a bad result for his first race with the team after they realised they weren’t on the pace of the Ferrari and Red Bull.
“I think we’re pretty good at looking after our tyres. It was a good first race, I’m reasonably happy with that.”
“It’s very difficult here because you can’t overtake. I was stuck behind Michael, but I think we’ve shown that our race pace is definitely quicker than our qualifying pace.
“The Ferrari is definitely the car to beat. The Red Bull is a quick car but in race trim it’s nowhere near. Our car is a good car but there are definitely things I have to work on.”
