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Spanish GP: Post Race press conference

NEWS STORY
10/05/2009

Jenson, another brilliant day for you and your team. A switch for your team-mate to a three stop strategy relatively early in the race and then just a great day for you.
Jenson Button: Well, it was the other way around. We were both going that direction but they switched me to a two stop just to cover all our bases. Three stop was the quicker strategy we thought and I wasn't sure about going to a two stop. When we put the fuel on board it felt very, very heavy and I didn't think I would come out in front of (Felipe) Massa and (Sebastian) Vettel but I did. From then on I could get my head down and concentrate on putting the laps in and being as consistent as possible. So to come away with a win, they all mean a lot obviously but coming back to Europe and winning in Barcelona, a circuit that I've always found a little bit tough, it's a good feeling and gives me a lot of confidence for the rest of the season.

Rubens, a great team performance as well. Tell us about the race from your point of view.
Rubens Barrichello: The race evolved quite well. I had a great start, went to the lead. I was running a tiny bit quicker than Jenson to begin with and I had two more laps of fuel. It was running quite well and then I heard they changed Jenson's strategy and I had to keep on pushing. My third set of tyres was not good. I don't know if there was something broken on the car or anything. I could not keep my pace up as well as the last set, so I guess it wasn't the tyre, it must be something to do with the car and from there on it was a struggle. I had a big struggle to keep the car on the track and a relief to come second and a big thank you to the whole group as it is still first and second back in Europe. Disappointed that I haven't won the race as I thought I had it in the bag today but it is still a good effort from the whole team.

Mark, a strong result for you and the team. Your team-mate Sebastian Vettel obviously spent most of the race behind Felipe Massa's Ferrari. But a great ending to your second stint to make up that time.
Mark Webber: Yeah, exactly. It was a tough first stint in terms of we knew that it was in qualifying that it was going to be difficult to get track position on those guys, particularly Felipe round this place as you can't do much on the circuit. We did our best to hang in there in the first stint as best as we could. I knew I was one lap shorter which is never ideal but that's the way it was because of qualifying. The car went incredibly neutral in the high speed in the last few laps of the first stint, so we made a balance correction for the second stint and the second stint went very well for me. It was very long, we knew we had to go extremely long to try and jump and give us very good field position if you like with the people around us. That worked well for the majority of the stint, a good 25 laps or so, and again at the end I came up to Rubens a little bit. I would have tried to stay close and the guys were encouraging me to stay as close as possible as we thought Rubens might have been one lap shorter but he stopped on the same lap. The primes worked okay at the end. I was stuck behind Rubens again for most of the last stint. But it is a good day for the team. We would like a few more points but I think, what is it 10 or 11 for Sebastian and I so that's another good chunk for us. These guys are a still going away but we are going away from the rest of the field, so a great day for us. And the team have buried themselves this week to get the car ready, a lot of all-nighters and a fantastic thank you to Renault as the engines have been great.

Jenson, let's have a look at the start. Your start with Rubens taking the lead and the first corner accident and weaving through the debris afterwards behind the safety car.
JB: Yeah, the start I felt was okay but Rubens got a flier of a start. I moved to the inside to try and hold the line but when he has got that much of an overlap at the start you can't really do much about it into turn one. Rubens did a great start and I wasn't able to stay with him on that and as soon as he was in front I knew it was going to be very difficult to beat him.

And the mayhem behind you?
JB: We obviously didn't see any of that. The only thing we saw was the debris. When we got to it the debris was all over the circuit, so it's a surprise that there were no tyre issues afterwards as there were massive amounts of debris.

When you come into that situation behind the safety car what are you looking for? What can you do to try and avoid issues with the tyres, etc?
JB: Well, you are very limited. If there is carbon fibre all over the circuit you are limited to what you can do. You have got your spotter, you have got your engineer who has been looking at the accident, he knows where the worst bits are. But look at the pick up on the tyre, it's massive. And a great thing that there were no issues with the debris, so it is positive really.

Rubens, as Jenson just said, a great start for you.
RB: I had a great reflex and I did have a little better start than Jenson and I used his slipstream and was able to carry that momentum into the first corner.

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