Button bemoans practice issues after Q1 elimination

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Jenson Button says problems during practice for the Japanese Grand Prix was a major reason in his failure to get out of Q1 during qualifying at Suzuka.

The two McLarens were clearly struggling in the first part of qualifying and Button was eventually eliminated in 17th pace, with team-mate Fernando Alonso going through to Q2 just 0.032s ahead of him in 16th. Button had stated his belief there was something wrong with his car during Friday practice but and then said further disruption to his running in FP3 put him on the back foot.

AS IT HAPPENED: Japanese Grand Prix - Qualifying

“On Friday we had a different balance with the car, a different set-up and it wasn’t good, so we went to the other car’s set-up this morning and I had an engine issue all morning so it was massively down on power,” Button said.

“But they pretty much put it right for qualifying and that was it really. I was 0.03s slower than Fernando and to be fair to be that close to him after the weekend we’ve had isn’t horrific. That’s just where the car is round here.”

When it was put to him he must be disappointed with such an uncompetitive performance from McLaren at Honda’s home race in Japan, the 2009 world champion said the circuit doesn’t suit the car.

“Yeah but every corner, the mid-speed corners round here, the change of direction and the long Turn 7 is all very negative for us in terms of what our car is good at. So it’s never going to be the easiest but you always hope that it is [going to be better] at Honda’s home grand prix.”

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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.