By Phil Huff
July 24 2005

Jenson Button's podium finish at the German Grand Prix was enough to see him sit through the Podium Press Conference. Here's what he had to say... Jenson, your second podium finish of the year if you include Imola. It was a great race with Michael Schumacher.

Yeah, it was a good race, a lot of fun. It was nice to actually be battling with someone. Michael got in front of me at the start of the race, he drove off wide on the first turn and was able to get in front then after the first pit stop I was just stuck behind him and couldn't get past. It is just so, so difficult to get past the Ferrari around here. I finally passed him in the hairpin then disappeared for a lap before my pit stop. But that lost me a lot of time and maybe there was a bit more we could have done if I wasn’t stuck behind him, but even so it has been a good weekend for us and I have to thank the whole team, they have done a great job.

It was a great pass on Michael, right down the inside there, he tried to defend but had the line.

Yeah, Michael is never the easiest person to overtake but it was a reasonably good move. I knew at the corner apexes he was very slow and he really had to slow the car down so I knew that was the best place to do it at the slowest corner on the circuit, so I was very happy with it. To get a podium here, for the team, it is such a tough season it is a fantastic result and it can only mean better things for us for the rest of the year.

And you closed a bit on Juan Pablo in the closing stages.

Yeah, you never know what people are doing, if they are taking it easy or not. But the car did feel good, as soon as I got past Michael the lap times were the low 16s, which for us was quick, and the car was working well. I had a pretty stable balance during the race and very consistent.

I guess being behind Michael was crucial for you.

Yeah it was. I lost a lot of time. He got me off the start, in the first stint he seemed to have pretty good pace and then immediately after the first stop he was a long way off the pace and I just found it really difficult to get by him. I'd get a reasonable exit out of turn two and turn three but I just couldn’t get any closer. So it took a while but in the end I lined him up and got him into turn four or five which was quite nice and then it was a lap before my pit stop so I had to push very hard to try and pull a bit of a gap out, because I knew he was going to be stopping later.

Was it kind of inevitable that Juan Pablo was going to come out ahead of you?

Um, it was after that because I had been stuck behind Michael for so long and I knew that Juan Pablo had had more fuel on than we did. So, yes, it was inevitable but I still had to give it everything because maybe he would get stuck in traffic. So for us it was a great race and I could push the car all the way through which was fantastic. It was the first time this year that I have been able to push from start to finish with the car. It's been very consistent, so yeah, very happy with third place and everyone has done a good job in the team.

And another relief to get some more points?

Yeah, it has been a tough year and now it just seems to be getting better and better every race, moving forward every race, little changes, and hopefully in two or three races' time we will be close enough to put the Renaults and McLarens under pressure. I don't know if that's possible but that would be fantastic.

Michael is never an easy guy to pass and you were pretty careful when you described the manoeuvre between the two of you. Was he fair with you? Did you feel that he blocked you too much, that his car was much slower than yours?

I got past, that's the main thing. We didn't touch. He moved across a little bit during braking but there was no issue at all.

In a more general sense, why is it so difficult overtake, not just you, but in general?

Michael seemed to be pretty quick in the high speed corners, especially the first turn – it was very difficult to get close to him through there. I was able to gain a bit through turn two in the slow speed (corners), that's where he was lacking speed, but I just couldn't tow up to him down the straight. I think their straight-line speed is similar to us if not a little bit better so to try and catch him on the straight, even though I got a good exit, was very very difficult.