Happy Hamilton hails 'the best lap I've ever done'

All week the media have been looking for differences between Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. Yesterday they found one. The 2008 world champion proved better able to get more out of his recalcitrant McLaren than his 2009 counterpart.

"Fourth position makes me happy like you wouldn't believe," Hamilton said. "And I'm so proud of my team. In the last couple of weeks they've pushed longer and harder than ever to get the upgrade package here.

"The new parts are an improvement, but we weren't able to get them all to work properly yesterday. And while we had to take most of them off last night, the team still did a remarkable job to get us ready for qualifying.

"We knew we were some way off the Red Bulls on sheer pace. And, honestly, I reckon this is the best lap I've ever done – and it's down to all the fans around here: the support around this track is like nowhere else. British race fans are the best by far. I had to nail that lap as if my life depended on it – and I don't know how I managed to get so far up the grid. The guys in front are faster than us, but this race isn't over."

A glum Button said: "It felt like there was something wrong. I don't yet know if there's an issue, but the car felt very strange. I had to take enormous amounts of front wing out, and I don't know why. P14 is very disappointing."