Button content with second place

Championship leader Jenson Button says he is content with his second place in the Italian grand prix.

The British Brawn GP driver couldn't catch his Brazilian team-mate Rubens Barichello for the outright win, but he managed to jump Lewis Hamilton in the pit-stops and hold off a late challenge from the McLaren driver to finish the race in second.

Button didn't get as good a start as Barrichello, but still managed to pass Heikki Kovalainen on the opening lap.

And the Brit said the pass on Kovalainen was crucial to ensure a good result.

'It was a messy opening lap,' said Button.

'I made up a position, which was fantastic.

'I'm always weary about the starts here with the KERS cars.

'Alonso didn’t get the jump, which was good and Rubens and myself were pretty good down into turn one and Kovalainen was struggling a little bit.

'He braked late into turn one and Rubens and Kimi nearly came together and then I was sat behind Kovalainen into the second chicane and then through Lesmo one I just put a nose up the inside.

'He ran a touch wide and I ran past through Lesmo two.

'It was a much-needed move because if I didn’t make it, I would have probably finished third or fourth.

'I had to make it stick and it did, which is nice,

'Obviously it would be nice to be where Rubens is, but he did a better job this weekend.

'But second’s good. I’ve lost two points to Rubens but I’ve gained seven to Vettel.

'You know, Rubens is my closest rival and I think we’ve got a good relationship.

'We’re very competitive people so we’re going to take it down to the wire.'

The current championship leader said he had to push throughout the race and he said that, despite a late push from Hamilton, he felt as though he had his second place covered.

'My lap times were pretty good as I was in the 1m25s, which I was pretty happy with,' said Button.

'Towards the end of the stint, I seemed to have better pace than at the beginning compared to Rubens, but Lewis started pushing on the last three laps and Andrew Shoelin, my engineer was getting a bit excited, but I think I had it covered because it’s pretty hard to pass here, even with KERS.

'I don’t know what happened, whether he made a mistake, whether he went a bit wide or whether he had a failure or something.'