Ecstatic Button Targets Consistency

Briton Jenson Button revelled in his first-ever podium finish in Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang and the BAR-Honda driver is now targeting regular top-three finishes.

Button, now in his fifth season in Formula One, stood on the podium for the first time in his 68-race career after finishing behind Ferrari's Michael Schumacher and Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya at Sepang.

Now the 24-year-old, who had previously finished fourth on five occasions, believes he can go on and claim regular podiums.

"I think we have done a great job over the winter, we really have made a good step forward and that is everyone in the team," said Button. "Everyone is really positive, which is great. There is not one person in the team that is negative and we are just making little steps forward every race, getting used to the tyres and we are very happy. I know the team are going to be ecstatic and so am I.

"It's a great feeling we've worked so hard, and I have in my career, and this is the first time I have been on the podium in four years so it's been a struggle but with a lot of hard work it is a fantastic feeling to be here. It is a step in the right direction.

"It would be nice if we could be as consistent as we have been here, that is what we have been fantastic at. Qualifying we seem to be pretty consistent but I don't know, we have to wait and see.

"Things can change within the season as we saw with Williams last year, they seemed to be able to make a huge step forward. We hope we can move forward at the same time as all the other teams."

Button made his Formula One debut in 2000 and finished fourth for Williams in the German Grand Prix. He added further fourth places for Renault in 2002 in Malaysia and Brazil, before narrowly missing out on a podium in Austria and Japan last year with BAR.