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Malaysia GP: Post Race press conference

NEWS STORY
05/04/2009

Jenson, it is never easy. Very difficult at the start and what calls you had to make with changing weather conditions as your pit stop approached.
Jenson Button: What a crazy race. It really was. My start was pretty bad. I had a lot of oversteer in the car. I don't think I got heat into the rear tyres and went back to fourth, got up to third and eventually got back to the front and I was pretty happy with that. Our pace was good and then the rain started but choosing the tyres was very difficult. Normally here when it rains it pours but it didn't to start with. We went for the full wet tyre and it just destroyed itself and we saw Timo flying up behind us on the inter, so we put the inter on. Then just as he came by I saw his tyres were bald and it was raining out the back and he was struggling quite a bit on it and had to pit. I got one lap in on the inter with reasonable pace and I was able to get in and put the wet tyre on and come out in front. A very interesting race and I still haven't seen the chequered flag without a safety car in front.

Nick, in 2005 from 10th to third and now from 10th to second. Great use of the conditions with a long fuel strategy. You came in on lap 22, a little bit earlier than you needed to, and it worked out perfectly for you.
Nick Heidfeld: Yeah, I think it was a very difficult race obviously in these conditions. I took the right tyre choice, well, not the perfect tyre choice as I went straight to extremes. As Jenson said there is normally heavy rainfall here. Then the team told me there is heavy rain expected and I told them inters would be a lot quicker now. Then just when they told me to pit it started to rain heavier and actually it was just 200 metres from the pit entry and I said 'no, no I stay out as it starts to rain more heavy.' I tried to preserve my tyres at the beginning and some other guys were quicker than me on the extreme wets and I knew if the rain starts then hopefully I can stay out. But still my rear tyres were destroyed completely and were slicks basically. When it started to rain I just tried to stay on the circuit.

Timo, a great call to go onto the intermediates as Jenson just said. Talk us through that.
Timo Glock: Yes, it was a tricky race I have to say but in the end I have to say one of the best races I could ever do. We struggled a bit at the start. I don't know why we lost so many places. I couldn't believe Fernando and Kimi were in front of me at the first corner. I didn't know where they came from and I struggled and I was only, I think, P8 after the first lap and the traffic was really tricky and after five or six laps I saw already the clouds were coming and I was asking 'when is the rain coming, when is the rain coming' and they said you know it should come in the next couple of minutes and then I thought it takes so long as you saw the big clouds coming definitely. It took just so long and we were so close to the first pit stop, so I said 'okay I will take the risk and we will go for it and go to inters and then we will see.' I saw already Felipe Massa was on heavy wets quite early and I knew that will destroy the tyres as well, so I said 'come on, we go for it and take the risk' and in the end it paid off. But the last two laps behind the safety car it was so confusing. My engineer told me when I did the pit stop 'you are leading the race,' so I said 'okay, I don't push because I want to save the tyres.' Then I saw Jenson coming out just ahead of me, so I was P2. Then I jumped out of the car and now I am here I am P3. So hopefully when I come back down I will still be in P3. That's what I am hoping for.

Jenson, in those closing laps just before the safety car came out you were racing with Timo in dreadful conditions.
JB: It was really bad conditions and you could not actually see the circuit. I mean it was that bad. We were behind the safety car and my team, who did a fantastic job, said all you have got to do is drive around and that was difficult enough. A few moments I was almost off the circuit. We are going around at running pace, that slow. The safety car was pulling away from us. All I had to do was drive around and stay on the circuit. But how slow it looks. It is embarrassing but that was as quick as we needed to go and if I'd gone any quicker I'd think I would have ended up in the gravel.

Nick, talk us through the atmosphere on the grid when you were just sitting there?
NH: Well, actually I thought I was second if the race was stopped now as I knew that the race is counted not at this lap but one or two laps before that. But there was a lot of confusion and we were told to be in first position if the race resumes because apparently (Mark) Webber would have been at the front. There was a lot of mess and it took a lot of time standing there but in this maybe half an hour there was a lot of conversation and a lot of confusion going on.

What was your feeling and the feeling amongst the drivers in terms of the conditions and a possible restart?
NH: Well, it was very clearly impossible to drive if the rain would have kept as strong as it was when the race was quite rightly stopped. As Jenson and Timo just said it felt like walking speed we were driving and still spinning off, so it was the right decision. And I think now outside it's dark already, so no chance to carry on.

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