Jenson Button concluded qualifying in Q2 with 12th place, but there was more to the McLaren driver's session than what met the eye.
Button's performance actually looked quite promising at one point with the former world champion running in the top 10 in Q2, but his MP4-30's persistent deployment issues brought his final result more in line with its usual rank.
"To be fair, I enjoyed driving the car around here today," Button said. "It felt the best as it's been all year, which is always promising at the end of the season.
"We're disappointed obviously being 12th because we thought we could have gotten through to Q3, which would have been the first time this year."
Button admitted he gave it his all in his attempt to break in to the final top 10 and left nothing on the table, but the McLaren-Honda's management of its electrical capacities still remains at the core of its weakness.
"We definitely maximized what we have but I just couldn't find the grip in our last run. But the feel of the car is good and the last sector was reasonably strong while there's still a lot of work to be done in the middle sector area.
"A lot of our issues come from deployment. We're not 28km/h slower on a straight, it's because we're cutting off even in qualifying the deployment. It looks worse than it is and obviously cost us a lot of lap time.
"It's going to be a tricky one tomorrow and more painful than in qualifying, but we'll see what we can do."
AS IT HAPPENED: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Qualifying
Between the lines at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
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