Button believes fourth place was possible in the German GP

The Briton, who made a bad start to the grand prix and dropped from seventh to tenth, had fought his way back up to sixth ahead of Nico Rosberg when he was forced to stop on lap 35.

"I had a terrible first lap, I don't know where I ended up, and then I couldn't get past [Vitaly] Petrov," Button told the BBC. "Eventually I did, and then I got back past the next two guys.

"My pace was good compared to the guys in front, [Felipe] Massa and [Sebastian] Vettel, so it was all looking quite exciting. I had a lot of fun out there and then we had a hydraulic issue and I had to retire the car on safety grounds.

"You never know what's going to happen with hydraulics, because obviously the steering is hydraulic and so is the gearshifts and what have you."

Button added that he was out of the fight for victory, but was fully in the fight for fourth with Massa and Vettel.

"The first three, there was no chance [of catching them] but the next two, yeah it was looking pretty good. Adrian Sutil who I passed before I passed Rosberg, was catching Massa and Vettel, so we would have had a good race.

"I think in the end we wouldn't have been in the top three but fourth was definitely possible. I was enjoying myself out there as well."