Button would take missing out on Q3 for strategy

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Jenson Button says McLaren will be happy with a Q2 exit in qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix in order to have more strategy options.

Friday practice saw Fernando Alonso finish in the top ten in FP2, while Button was just outside in 12th place. With both drivers having started outside the top ten in Austin last weekend but gone on to score points in the race, Button says missing out on Q3 would not be a bad thing for McLaren.

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"I think it might be a little bit more difficult than the last few races but it’s not such a bad thing being just outside the top ten because you get choice of strategy, but obviously we’ll try our best to get in the top ten," Button said.

“The goal is to score points. If we can get into Q3 that’s nice, if we’re just outside Q3 I don’t think we’ll be upset. We have a lot more choice, Fernando started 12th in the last race and finished fifth, and I was 19th and finished ninth. So we’re not too worried about being just outside the top ten.”

Button completed a long run on the medium tyre and believes it could be the better race tyre given the problems drivers will have starting on supersofts.

“Well it’s the tyre that lasts the longest and we haven’t seen any graining on that tyre yet. I don’t want to say it’s a good tyre, but it’s working in a better way than the other two. It’s less bad, I think that’s probably the best way to say it, but it’s such low grip on that tyre, but it doesn’t have so much graining.

"The supersoft, you do one lap and it’s graining already so it’s tough and that will add a bit of excitement I think to the start of the race.”

And Button also hinted to expect further progress from McLaren on Saturday as a result of its FP2 testing.

“Yeah we started off doing a lot of work for later on this year and also next year’s car so FP1 wasn’t really any use for this weekend, but then FP2 there was a lot more testing, which is good. We finally found something that is a bit more interesting and hopefully something we can work with.”

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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.