Jenson Button said that McLaren's decision to switch him onto medium tires midway through the Brazilian Grand Prix was instrumental in his podium finish.
Button was running fourth, between Fernando Alonso's Ferrari and his teammate Lewis Hamilton, and struggling on soft rubber when the decision was made to switch the Briton. During the second half of the race Button used two sets of the medium tires, enabling him to overtake Alonso for the final podium spot with nine laps to go.
"I had no pace on the softer tires, so I used the harder rubber in the last two stints and it worked pretty well," said Button. "Ferrari struggled on the harder tires and I managed to make the pass [on Alonso]. Every lap was like a qualifying lap."
While on soft tires earlier in the race, Button had lost third spot to Alonso as the Spaniard pulled off a spectacular move around the outside into the Ferradura right-hander. Button, though, said he was powerless to defend from the Spaniard due to debris on the circuit that he was trying to avoid.
"Fernando was very close out of Turn 5 and so I covered line for Turn 6 [Ferradura]. Normally it's quite easy to block there. I looked back to see where he was, then looked back in front and saw lots of debris on the inside, from Michael [Schumacher]'s puncture, I think.
"I didn't want to drive through it so I backed off but I couldn't go left because he was already there, so I just had to pull in behind him."