Button could do no more

The BAR ace had chosen to start the race on a two-stop strategy, one less than his main rivals, and at the end of his middle stint it appeared that he would be in a position to go for the victory.

But those chances were dashed when Button just did not have the pace to match the lead Ferrari - although his car was good enough to hold off the hard-charging Kimi Raikkonen for second place. The result clinches third place in the drivers' championship for the Briton.

"It was a very tough race, when you know the others guys are doing a three stop and you're doing two, it does make it very difficult mentally because you have so much weight on board," he said. "It was pretty tough, especially the last stint when Rubens was putting in some fast laps, being able to push was almost impossible because with that much weight you get loads of oversteer."

BAR boss David Richards, delighted at Button's second and Takuma Sato's sixth from the back of the grid which boosts his team's constructors' championship hopes, was equally adamant that second was the best the outfit could do.

"Jenson couldn't have driven it more perfectly," he said. "You have to give it to Rubens, though, he drove exceptionally well and their tactics were very good, but as far as we're concerned we've got both cars up there in the points which is important for the championship at the moment. Taku started from the back of the grid and drove a perfect race to give the team exactly what we needed."

Button does believe, however, that BAR must work on improving its starts after he lost places off the grid in Shanghai.

"It was a good race for us and I'm very happy to get second, but the starts have been a problem lately for us and to lose two places off the start, almost three places, was disastrous really for us and it's something we need to work on. If we have that then I think we can be challenging for our first win."