second, but aside from that he did not put a foot wrong.
There were kisses and hugs all round with wife Rafaella and father Luiz Antonio in the paddock afterwards, which appeared as much in relief as well as celebratory.
As for Hamilton, he has urged his team to push if they are to keep pace with the Ferraris and the Red Bulls.
"Third place was a very strong result for us," said Hamilton.
"I feel we did a good job. Our reliability was great and the pace was pretty good, but we still need to push very hard to close the gap to the cars in front."
On his return after three and a half years in retirement, Michael Schumacher had to be content with sixth, a place behind team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Behind Button, with the top 10 scoring points this season, Mark Webber was eighth in his Red Bull, followed by Vitantonio Liuzzi in his Force India and Williams' Rubens Barrichello.
Of the newcomers, Lotus Racing made a dream start with Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli finishing 15th and 17th.
As for Virgin Racing and Hispania Racing, their drivers all retired for one reason or another by lap 18.