During the four months on the road Nicholson went through four sets of tyres, three chains and many, many isolated road hours to think.
Formula One cars typically use between two and four sets of tyres during a race and using harder tyres may allow fewer pit stops to change tyres.
This sometimes involves using just one set of tyres for two or even three 45-minute stints.
"I made a mistake on my first run so we only had one set of tyres left but I was pretty happy with the [final] lap," said Vettel.
Button collected four points to remain eighth in the overall standings but was unhappy with the team strategy that left him to race the final 37 laps on one set of tyres.
Hill, concerned about starting from the dirty side of the track (the side of the track that is opposite to the racing line), had only two sets of brand new tyres for the race.
And in the race he said two sets of the same 'hard' tyre that had been prepared in the same way behaved differently on Hamilton's car. .
As was the case for all of the 2008 Grands Prix, the rules stipulated that all cars should use both types of tyre during the course of the race, and each driver was limited to seven sets of dry tyres for the weekend.
The rules restrict teams to four sets of 'intermediate' tyres and three sets of 'extreme wets' per grand prix weekend, but drivers have an extra set of intermediates they can use on Fridays and give back without affecting their allocation.
The pole position man thus used an additional set of slick tyres, meaning that out of the allocation of seven sets of slick tyres as set out by the FIA, he had only two sets of brand-new rubber for the race, whereas Schumacher had the advantage of three sets of new rubber.
