Jenson Button believes poor race strategy was to blame for his failure to build on a lightning start in his McLaren-Mercedes in Sunday's F1 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.
The Frome Flyer - making his 257th Grand Prix appearance, moving him up to third in the all-time rankings behind Michael Schumacher (306) and Rubens Barrichello (322) - started 11th on the grid but found himself sitting sixth at the end of the first lap.
However, he faded in the middle as his third set of tyres proved unable to last to the finish. A late-race third stop, on lap 61, gave him the rubber to get home but meant he couldn't improve on eighth place.
"I got a good start – I was running as high as sixth in the early stages – so things were looking okay," said Button.
"But I think we got the strategy wrong when we made our second stop. I'm not sure why we stopped so early but it made it extremely difficult for me to keep the set of tyres alive until the end of the race, which was the plan at that point.
"The strategy didn't work out for us, which was a shame, but we'll learn some useful lessons from it."
Button was also nudged by former McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton on lap 30 during the Mercedes driver's charge to third place, having started back in 20th following his five-place grid penalty for a pre-race gearbox change.
"When I felt the hit from Lewis, I was a bit surprised," said Button, who remains eighth in the drivers' championship after picking up a point in Germany.
"A lot of drivers take a wider entry line into Turn Six in order to get a better exit – perhaps Lewis expected me to let him past but why would I let anybody through? We were racing."
Button's second pitstop of the afternoon established a new team record of 2.15secs stationary. That beats McLaren's previous record of 2.20 – also set with Button's car – at last year's Spanish Grand Prix.
