Rear tyre wear left Jenson Button struggling to keep up the pace after he led the opening stint in China.
Having jumped Sebastian Vettel at the start Button lost the lead at the first stops after he wasted a couple of seconds driving into the Red Bull pit box.
Later he was overtaken on the road by Lewis Hamilton, and then was passed by the flying Mark Webber on the penultimate lap.
“First of all, massive congrats to Lewis, he drove a great race,” said Jenson. “It was one of those races where there was a lot of overtaking, a lot of action involved. It was good fun to be a part of. But I wasn’t quick enough. I really struggled to look after the rear tyres, for some reason. So fourth place was as good as I could get out of the car.”
Button said that while racing 2011-style is fun, it’s frustrating to be caught by cars on newer tyres.
“It’s enjoyable, but you’re also a sitting duck when people have got new tyres. You cant do anything . For example when Webber past me, he was going so much faster. You really can’t do anything, you try and fight back, you don’t have the grip, you don’t have the braking power, you don’t have the traction, so it’s very tricky.
“So a tough afternoon for me for some reason, I didn’t have the pace. It could have been a better, could have been a lot worse. Fourth is OK.
“Getting strategy right is obviously very important. Webber finishing behind his team mate – Sebastian started on pole, Webber was 18th – it really is amazing. But basically I wasn’t quick enough today, and that’s it. But a fantastic job by Lewis and the whole team.”
Button said he was distracted when he made his pit mistake: “I made it difficult for them at the first stop as well, I was actually looking down when I came into the pits, and went into the wrong pit spot. It wouldn’t have actually changed my race at all, but it just made it a bit tougher for the guys.”
Adam Cooper F1 
So is it about time we stop claiming Jenson to be smoother on his tires than anyone else? This isn’t a sarcastic comment, I’m just wondering whether or not his reputation of being gentle on his tires is no longer valid?
Yet at the last race LH had destroyed his last set of tyres in ~15 laps whilst JB did 19 laps (at a higher pace). Turkey will be interesting given it’s high-ish tyre wear rate.
When I say last race I mean Malaysia obviously!
And here it was the other way around, so does that say anything more than that teams and drivers are still working to get a perfect understanding of what the tyres need?
Hamilton’s third stint was on fresh hards which are quite useless as they are not that much more durable than the softs (if at all) and they have alot less grip. He pitted for used hards which were even slower which caused him to drop down and have Alonso attack him (literally) that broke parts of the rear of the car which made him lose downforce. He pitted again for more hards and dropped down even further. Button on the other hand was on a different tyre strategy hence why he finished much higher
In China both drivers were on the same tyre strategy, and we all know who came out on top.