Button and his Brazilian team-mate, Rubens Barrichello, both struggled for pace throughout qualifying, but made strong starts once the race was underway, although progress through the pack was slow.

Barrichello exited the race after a collision with the Red Bull of David Coulthard near the end, while Button carried on to take a lowly position – nine places away from the points.

Button said afterward: "It was a frustrating race and it is obviously disappointing to finish 17th. We pitted early for my first stop to prevent Rosberg overtaking and I lost a lot of time there to both him and Rubens because we had no performance on the prime tyre after my stop. The traction was really poor and I was losing so much time out of the corners. When the safety car came out, we immediately pitted for tyres to enable us to switch back to the option tyre as soon as possible and unfortunately that meant that although I was a lap down, I was not able to overtake the leader."

After his retirement Barrichello said: "The incident with Coulthard which ended my race was just unlucky. I was trying to force him to take a wider line on the outside through turn nine so that on turn 10 I would be able to come up the inside, but unfortunately he didn't see me on the inside and we touched. The team could see at the stop that there was too much damage to the front bargeboards to continue and that ended my race."

The Silverstone-based Kingfisher Force India team drivers, Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil, finished the Grand Prix in 14th and 16th positions.

The Ferrari-powered cars improved their performance, and Fisichella said: "I could have finished one place higher, but unfortunately I locked up in one corner and dropped a spot – but all the same, it's nice to get a finish and to be racing again."

Adrian Sutil said of his home Grand Prix, "I'm disappointed as I think I had a good race pace and in the end didn't get anything out of my weekend. During the last stint something didn't feel right with my car, so that will have to be investigated, it was not the best race, but at least I finished."

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