Tough outing for McLaren in qualy

Button struggled in the opening phase of Q1 and as the clock ticked down to the end of the session found himself in the drop zone. However, after pitting for a second set of intermediate tyres in the closing minutes he suddenly found some pace and looked on course to jump up the timesheet, according to an FIA press note.

But as he neared the end of his lap, Marussia’s Timo Glock spun exiting the final corner and came to rest across the grid. The yellow flags came out and Button’s lap was compromised. He ended up 18th and out of the following two sessions.

“It felt completely different [on the second set of tyres],” he said. “I came out of the pits and could actually get heat into the tyres straight away and it felt good, whereas with the first set I came out of the pits and had front shuddering and just couldn’t get fronts up to temperature. The story of my year, really.

“I gained almost 1.7s according to my dash compared to the previous lap time, which wouldn’t have just got me in [to Q2], it would’ve given us the quickest lap time,” he added. “It’s a pity but it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Hamilton, meanwhile, scrambled through the rain-hit second segment to make it into the top-10 shootout. However, in the final session he too had difficulty in getting heat into the tyres and finished eighth, almost two seconds adrift of pole position winner Fernando Alonso.

“It was difficult, it is always is qualifying in the wet, but we really struggled. For some reason the tyres in Q3 wouldn’t switch on,” Hamilton said. “The extremes worked really well, then I came in because I thought it was drying and that the intermediates would give us the best grip but I was just sliding like crazy.

“I can’t for the life of me understand why the tyres didn’t switch on there,” he added. “It’s very rare that I can’t get my tyres working. I was pushing and pushing and there was no grip.”

Both drivers, however, said they were confident of better performances in tomorrow’s race.

“The car is quicker than what we did,” he said. “We’re not far away. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the front row but we can still push through tomorrow. From eighth, everything is still possible.”

Button, too, was upbeat about his chances.

“We don’t get that many tyres, so this could actually be a good thing,” he said of his failure to get out of Q1. “If tomorrow’s wet – which we think it’s going to be – then we haven’t put as much mileage on the tyres. You’ve got to take the positives, because it was a very unlucky session.”