Button rues costly pitstop blunder

Button's hopes of good result vanished during his second pitstop, when he was given the signal to get moving while the fuel line was still attached to his car.

Several mechanics fell to the ground and the broken nozzle had to be removed from the car in the middle of the pitlane.

Button rued the incident but defended chief mechanic Alistair Gibson, the man in charge of the 'lollipop'.

"I don't know what happened," Button said. "I think [Gibson] saw the fuel nozzle move and he lifted [the lollipop], so it is a tough one - and it is even tougher on the mechanics. A few of them got bruised, but they are not too hurt, which is good.

"Anyway, that is something that we can resolve straight away, and Alistair is a guy who works so hard on pitstops, he has done thousands of these things and that is a single mistake in all the years I have been here, so you cannot be too hard on the guy. It won't happen again.

"The guy probably feels terrible, I think, and he doesn't deserve to feel that bad. We all make mistakes."

Button's car was damaged in the incident, and the Briton went on to finish in seventh place.

"It was difficult, and the car got a little bit damaged, like the barge board," he said. "It changed the feeling of the car, it didn't help the rear stability in any way, so it was tough to drive in that situation, especially when you know you would have been challenging for a podium.

"It is difficult but we have got to keep going, it is not like it is the first time. You realise you just have to push 100 percent all the time."