Button left pondering what might have been

Monza, Italy, Sept 11, 2011 (AFP) - Jenson Button was left pondering what might have been on Sunday after he finished a strong second for McLaren behind Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull in the Italian Grand Prix.

The 2009 world champion believed he would have been a much greater threat to the defending champion and runaway leader if he had had a much better start to the 53-laps race.

Button said: "It was a really fun race. Fighting with Lewis (Hamilton) with Michael (Schumacher) and with Fernando (Alonso). 

"It was a good race, it wasn't for the lead, which was a shame but it's always very difficult when you are down in seventh.

"I had a tough start to the race but it was a lot of fun, and the atmosphere here is electric. We have to get things together on race weekends and then hopefully we can be challenging Seb.!

"I don't know if we could have challenged him today - it is such a pity we had such a poor start. It is a little issue, but it can cost you a lot of time. "We did a great job with the pit-stops. It is great to get a second but you always want a lot more."

Button said passing Alonso for second was a 'tense' moment, as he was unable to overtake the Spaniard with the use of Drag Reduction System (DRS) and Kinetic Energy Regeneration System (KERS) on the straight.

"It's a weird thing with the DRS. We get to a point on the straight where we don't go anywhere, we sit on the limiter. I made a mistake at Ascari -- and Fernando got a gap and I couldn't get any closer, but on the hard tyreFernando was struggling for grip.

"That is the good thing about KERS: you can catch people out if they make a mistake. It was a tense moment but I eventually pulled a gap and easy to settle into the race."