Q3 is possible for McLaren at Monza - Button

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Jenson Button believes McLaren can reach Q3 at Monza after setting encouraging times during Friday practice for the Italian Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso struggled with reliability issues during FP2 but still ended the session seventh quickest, while Button was tenth despite hitting traffic on his quickest lap. Asked if McLaren can make it through to the final part of qualifying, Button replied: "It's possible.

"[Friday's] pace... we're not doing anything different to what we normally do on a Friday, so it's definitely possible. The car is working reasonably well and my lap was pretty good until Kimi [Raikkonen] backed out of his in front and held me up for a couple of corners.

"So I'm pretty happy. The long run pace is alright, still needs some work until we're properly competitive and can fight for good points. Hopefully we can be a bit stronger [for FP3], if we are we're looking alright."

When it was put to Button that McLaren is losing a lot of time in the final sector, the Briton said it is a trade-off with the other sectors on the circuit.

"They're just very different sectors. Sector three has mid-speed corners, sector one has low-speed corners, so there's a different with the way the car works. I think we probably are low downforce, we've taken quite a bit off.

"There's a lot of options and possibilities and maybe we'll put downforce on and maybe we won't, it's still early to know."

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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.