Button baffled by ‘terrible’ run after latest Q1 exit

Jenson Button hints that he can’t wait for the current Formula One season to be over after he was knocked out of Q1 at the Brazilian Grand Prix, which extended what the McLaren-Honda driver describes as a “terrible” run of poor form.

Button could only manage the 17th fastest time in the opening phase of qualifying, which means the Briton has failed to advance through to Q2 in three of the last four weekends.

Having entered the Interlagos event with high hopes of McLaren-Honda emerging as the fourth quickest team, a downbeat Button admits he is at a loss to understand his Saturday performance.

“The car was well balanced on Friday, 10th-quickest, and today it’s a completely different car,” the 2009 world champion said.

“Obviously you have the new engine, new gearbox, new rear-end on the car, but still… When it’s cooler, you normally pick up a lot more rear-end grip, but in the high-speed it’s just so on the nose that you destroy the rears for the low-speed.

“There’s no reason it should be so much on the nose, and it was like that since this morning, we’ve been off the pace and still are now.

“Only one more qualifying left, which at the moment I’m quite happy about. The last six races have been terrible, I don’t know why.”

Button’s struggles were all the more acute in the light of team-mate Fernando Alonso's strong result. The Spaniard lapped half a second faster in Q1, before reaching the final part of qualifying in the second MP4-31.

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