By Phil Huff
April 24 2005

After the epic battle between Michael Schumacher and race winner Fernando Alonso, questions for Jenson Button in the post race interviews were hard to come by. Here's what Jensom manged to get in... Jenson, great to finally be on the podium.

Yeah, definitely. It has been a tough few races for us already this season. It's the same sort of situation that Michael's been in. We have all worked so hard since the last race to turn things around and we have. We are not yet on the same pace as Ferrari but they have done a fantastic job. I know they have been working night and day to turn this car around and I would just like to say thank-you to them, because it is a different car and I'm very positive that we can keep making these improvements throughout the year.

How did your pace early on compare with Fernando's?

We were suffering a little bit with our fuel load. When the fuel load got a bit lower we were very competitive. I don't know if Alonso was slowing down but I was able to catch him a little bit towards the end of the stints. But as soon as we put the fuel back in we were struggling again. It doesn't matter any more. I'm very happy to be here on the podium. We have got so much information from this race, it is the first one we have finished this year and so it is great to be back on the podium and I think we are going to be strong when we arrive in Barcelona.

It must have been frustrating feeling you couldn't go any faster and Michael was closing on you relentlessly.

Yeah, the pace of Michael and Ferrari was staggering. Everyone else seemed to be doing around the same lap times except for Michael, I mean, it was just a staggering performance. When he got past me there was no use fighting him because I knew he was stopping later than me and really I just had to hope he would catch up with Fernando and you never know then.

But obviously some relief at having opened your score.

Yeah, it is fantastic, I mean, it's great to get back on the podium again. We have had such a tough season. The first three races I haven't finished and it is great to be back up here and it's fantastic for the team to have two cars in the points. I think we are just going to go forward from here. We are very positive and confident we can make new improvements so I am looking forward to Barcelona.

The car is obviously better, have you got bits coming that can make it better again?

There are always bits, always parts to the car to improve it and we are very positive that they are going to make a difference. It has improved in a lot of areas. Obviously, we have got more downforce but it is the drivability that has changed. Now you turn into a corner with confidence that it is actually going to go in and it's not going to go backwards. So I am very happy with the car, we have just got to up our game a bit so we can challenge Ferrari.