Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Button: 'We’ll just sit there waiting for everyone to overtake us'

Jenson Button says McLaren is in for a tough race in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and will "just sit there waiting for everyone to overtake us".

Fernando Alonso was ninth fastest in FP2 but warned McLaren was likely to slip back in qualifying on Saturday. With Button having ended the second session down in 16th place and two seconds off the pace, the 2009 world champion explained the gap to his team-mate and was also pessimistic regarding the team's chances on Sunday.

“Fernando and I were trying very different things today, because it was all about understanding as much as possible for next year’s car," Button said. "I’ll be changing my car quite a bit for tomorrow, so today was all about testing – that’s what we’re here to do.

"I normally enjoy driving around here but today wasn’t that much fun. But we know what to do for tomorrow, to make it a bit more enjoyable. Hopefully we’ll be running with most of Fernando’s set-up tomorrow and given how quick he was, particularly in sector 3, I’m really looking forward to that.

"I would have preferred if it stayed hot, because I think we understand the tyres better than other people, but qualifying and the race will be run in cooler conditions. We’re in for another tough weekend and the race should be really difficult, as our deployment hasn’t been really up to it, so we’ll just sit there waiting for everyone to overtake us. But we’ll do our best."

However, Button expects to see plenty of action in Sunday's race due to the Yas Marina Circuit's layout leading to difficulties looking after the tyres.

"I think the biggest problem with the super soft tyre is overheating in the last sector. The compound isn’t that much softer than the soft but you get more front grip with it than rear grip, so it makes the car becomes very pointy, particularly in the last sector.

"You have to look after the rear tyres but you also have to work the front tyres hard to get them ready for sector one, so it’s a tough balancing act. The prime was more consistent, but the option doesn’t last long, so I think we’ll see early stops in the race, just like last year.”

AS IT HAPPENED: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix FP2

Eric Silbermann's Abu Dhabi grumpy preview

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.