Jenson Button believes that Mark Webber's victory in the German Grand Prix was actually good news to him, despite the Brawn driver finishing down in fifth place.
The Brawn driver's championship lead remained at 21 points despite his second minor points finish in as many races. He believes that the potential for the Red Bull drivers Webber and Sebastian Vettel to fight against each other from now on could favor him over the remainder of the season.
"My championship lead has stayed the same, although it's over a different person now," said Button, who is now 21 points ahead of Vettel while he was 23 ahead of teammate Rubens Barrichello before the race. "It's quite good [that Webber won] because Vettel's now got him right behind him in the championship, and they'll be taking points off each other. If Vettel had won here, it would have been a disaster.
"I'm looking forward to Hungary, though, when we should have a few new parts. We really need to beat the Red Bulls there."
Button said that his own race was a disaster right from the start, the World Championship leader losing significant ground throughout the race after getting stuck behind the slower McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen early on.
A lack of pace on the harder option tires -- on a cool track surface that does not favor the Brawns -- also restricted his progress and prevented the podium finish that Button believed was possible.
"The start was bad, cars all around me and people outbraking themselves. I got a few places back and got up to fourth with [Felipe] Massa and Kovalainen, but their pace was way off and there was no way through, so it made it a difficult race.
"Then I spent some time behind Rubens and his pace on the prime tire wasn't good. And my pace on the option tire was bad, because with the track being quite cool, I struggled to keep the heat in them. Then I had graining and big degradation.
"I thought we could have been on the podium behind the Red Bulls, but it was not possible."