Despite a troubled afternoon of free practice on Friday, Jenson Button is hoping that he and team mate Fernando Alonso have enough in reserve to make it into the final round of qualifying this afternoon, which would mean starting the 2016 British Grand Prix in the top ten on the starting grid.
"When you look at Fernando’s P6 [in the second free practice session] it shows there is some performance there," said Button of his updated Honda power unit, which making its first appearance this weekend. "Whether we’ll be in that position tomorrow when people get quicker, as they always do, I don’t know.
"Fernando has found some good pace and hopefully tomorrow with some running, and the new parts we’ll have on our car [on Saturday], we should be competitive."
Button's FP2 session was plagued with problems which meant he was in and out of the McLaren garage all session. Yet despite the interruptions he still managed to finish in ninth place, which he admitted was a bit of a surprise.
"We had a few issues to do with the power unit. It’s nothing that’s an issue long term, it’s just number crunching on the laptop. So I missed some of the session – a hell of a lot of the session – and set up work we didn’t do.
"There’s no big problem with the engine, it’s just making sure there isn’t going to be a problem. Hopefully the issue is sorted and we can run the engine as we would like and get some laps in [on Saturday] morning. I need to find the limit – it’s difficult at a circuit like Silverstone when you get just three laps in the afternoon.
"I did a lap on the prime tyre at the start of the session and we had a problem, sat in the garage for half an hour, went out and did another lap, had another problem and sat back in the garage for a little while. Eventually got back out on the soft right at the end and did a lap on low fuel but we did no set-up work or anything.
"They’re issues we do not want again! Hopefully they’ll sort out the issues for [FP3 and qualifying] and we can get some running in," he said. "But still, to be P9 is a little bit strange. But I’m sure tomorrow we’ll be put back in our place.
"Qualifying is still going to be difficult to get into the top ten. Nico [Rosberg] didn’t run, the Force Indias didn’t run soft tyres, the Williams will be quick. It’s going to be tricky but if we get a clear morning [in FP3] it could be an alright day."
However, even the classic British weather seems not to be inclined to help Button out this weekend at his home race, with the forecast showers failing to show up so far this weekend.
"The sun’s come out – what’s happened to the traditional British weather that we need!" he joked.
FP2 report: Hamilton sweeps Friday practice as Rosberg hits trouble
Chris Medland's 2016 British Grand Prix preview
From the cockpit: Felipe Nasr on back-to-back races
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