Brawn hails strategy switch

The Briton did not want the credit for the switch, however, insisting that chief race engineer Luca Baldisserri suggested the strategy as a way of overcoming the Renault of Fernando Alonso.

"The strategy switch wasn't my idea, Luca Baldisserri came up with it," said Brawn. "We had nothing to lose. We didn't know it would work but it was worth trying. I would have been too difficult to overtake Fernando, so switching to this strategy meant that Michael could run in clear air.

"We had a pretty good idea when the other guys would stop. Jenson Button was the only one we were worried about getting stuck behind. But we didn't think we would get held up and we didn't - Michael came out behind him, but Button stopped just afterwards."

After the race, a humble Baldisserri said of the decision: "We thought 'why not?' You lose the position on track, but if you have a fast car you can try a different strategy. Here we knew we could use four stops against someone who was three-stopping."