Title leader happy to gain points after car struggles

(GETTY)

Jenson Button is optimistic that his disappointing sixth place at yesterday's British Grand Prix at Silverstone will be remembered as the only blot in what has been an otherwise faultless 2009 campaign.

Button came to his home race looking for a seventh win, but saw his hopes dashed as his Brawn car struggled all weekend to get grip into his tyres in the low temperatures at the Northamptonshire circuit.

With just one point settling the drivers' title in each of the last two seasons, Button is aware he must collect points even on the bad days.

"If you don't get the tyres in their working range, it doesn't matter what car you've got, it doesn't work, so that was my problem here and Rubens [Barrichello] seemed to be struggling as well," he said. "The opening pit stop went well for him and he was able to stay in front of [Ferrari's Felipe] Massa and [Williams' Nico] Rosberg, but the pace wasn't there, and that's just the way our car is with the low temperatures. But there you go. Hopefully this will be the worst race of the year. And after struggling so hard to get three points, in a way this might be an important three points."

The championship leader said he was compromised throughout by his low grid slot. "I could reel in Rosberg and Massa at the end of the race like they were stood still but I could not overtake. If you don't get qualifying right, which I didn't, you suffer," he said. "In the first stint I slowed up behind [Jarno] Trulli just to see what times I could do, and I was eight-tenths to a second quicker. But I still couldn't overtake."

Brawn team principal, Ross Brawn, refused to be too downbeat. "This is not a complete disaster for the championship," he told BBC Sport. "You can have days when you struggle but come back. It could have been a lot worse."