Fry sings Button's praises

And although it would have been all to easy for Fry to take some of the credit for having finally helped steer the team to that long-awaited first win, he was adamant that only one man deserved the praise.

"This is a huge amount to do with Jenson Button and him persevering and being a fast and aggressive driver," explained Fry. "To come from 14 th on the grid and to be fourth after seven laps - that takes some doing.

"When he overtook Michael (Schumacher), I thought 'that'll show 'em,' to those who said that Jenson could not overtake and those who said he wasn't aggressive enough. I think that he really showed everyone who has had doubts about his fortitude. It's a true British fighting spirit.

"I've always had 100 percent belief in Jenson as a driver who can do it. It's been tough along the way, but it makes the win all the more rewarding."

Fry believes that Honda's turnaround of fortunes this year, and the delivery of that win, were as much to do with Button's abilities off track as they were with his driving on it.

"Jenson has been a fantastic team leader and I've been pushing him to be more dominant and more domineering of the team," said Fry. "He always wanted to work people as opposed to ranting and raving.

"When things have gone wrong, he's said that there hasn't been one particular person and all credit to him. He's been a great team player and he's led this team to its first victory and hopefully there will be more."

The victory will go some way to easing the pressure off Honda, who faced a wave of criticism earlier this year when their form dropped off. But Fry believes that in some ways it will get tougher for them now because expectations will increase.

"It does take the pressure off, but it also puts it on to do it again," he said. "And this is tough. One thing that has really come home this year is that when you're ninth in the championship to improve to fifth - it's tough, but nothing like moving from fourth position to winning.

"But when you're up against teams like Ferrari and McLaren, they are really good at what they do. That's come home to us this year. We're not going to beat them by taking a conservative approach.

"I think we can go on from here. There is a big sea change in the whole team this weekend. Sometimes in the past, we have been a little conservative and we have acted as the underdog team against others that do a fantastic job."