Button frustrated by poor showing

The British driver struggled for pace with the prime tyres and was unable to match the pace of his rivals.

A safety car period left Button a lap down and from there he could not make up much ground, having to settle for 17th position.

"A frustrating race today and it is obviously disappointing to finish in 17th position," said Button. "We pitted early for my first stop to prevent Rosberg overtaking and I lost a lot of time there to both him and Rubens because we had no performance on the prime tyre after my stop.

"The traction was really poor and I was losing so much time out of the corners. When the safety car came out, we immediately pitted for tyres to enable us to switch back to the option tyre as soon as possible and unfortunately that meant that although I was a lap down, I was not able to overtake the leader.

"I'm very disappointed, particularly after a stronger qualifying performance than in recent races, but we'll learn from our mistakes today."

Rubens Barrichello also had a day to forget after having to retire following a crash with David Coulthard when trying to pass the Scot.

Although the Brazilian managed to return to the track, his car was too damaged to continue.

"The race began well today as I gained a couple of positions at the start and our strategy was to run as long as possible," Barrichello said.

"Unfortunately we didn't have the pace to be competitive and we were really struggling with the traction. Our strategy was good but if we had been able to run for just another few laps it would have made my day, just as it did for Piquet Jr. Congratulations to him on his podium.

"The incident with Coulthard which ended my race was just unlucky. I was trying to force him to take a wider line on the outside through turn nine so that on turn 10 I would be able to come up the inside, but unfortunately he didn't see me on the inside and we touched.

"The team could see at the stop that there was too much damage to the front bargeboards to continue and that ended my race."