Germany: Button talks in the 'Fastest Three'

By Phil Huff (24/07/2004)
July 24 2004

Despite being relegated to 13th on the grid, Jenson did set the third fastest time in qualifying, and therefore sat in on the Fastest Three press conference. Here's what he had to say.

Jenson, a bit of a bitter-sweet day. Obviously you were quick but a problem with the car means you are going to have to start 10 positions further back.

It is, you know, it's difficult because we have been very strong here on long runs and it is more our one-lap pace that we have had to work on. So it is disappointing that we are going back to 13th on the grid, but these things happen. I have been very lucky in the races not to have any failures so, we make mistakes and the team makes mistakes sometimes.

As it happens, 13th is your highest ever qualifying position for the German Grand Prix and you have scored points in three out of four of those races.

True, I have had a pretty good run here in the past in cars that really haven't been good enough to be in the top five or six places. There is a good chance we can get points here and that is our aim – to get both cars in the points, and hopefully not just one or two points. We have got a very good race pace and I am looking forward to the race. It should be very exciting.

You lost out on one grid placing by 0.006s, I expect you know where that went!

Not really. At the hairpin I locked up and went wide, but I actually gained time because I braked very very late there. But 13th on the grid is probably better than 12th actually because it is on the clean side and I would actually rather be 13th than 12th so I'm reasonably happy.

How much do you plan for midfield? You know you're going to be docked ten places.

Obviously we knew, but it is very difficult to know where you are going to stand at the end of qualifying. If you are third or you're sixth, it makes such a huge difference. We are around cars that we can hopefully get past in the race and hopefully we are capable of getting some points because it is important, I think, to consistently be scoring the points, even though it might not be many, it's important to get some points.

You had something on the car yesterday which you haven't been allowed to run today, has that made a big difference? Is that something you liked?

If we had it on the car we are going to like it. But the car has worked very well today. It's the best it's felt for a long time over a long run. We have been struggling a little bit with that over the last few races, with consistency. But it's there now, just a pity I'm not at the front to be able to use it. But even so, it's going to be a very exciting race for me from 13th.