Jenson Button had a compromised afternoon at Silverstone, with the British driver enduring a troubled time with car issues, although he did manage to finish inside the top ten with a late fast lap.
The McLaren-Honda driver had earlier finished twelfth in the opening session, and took advantage of the time available to go ninth in the second, with Button hoping that all the problems encountered on Friday mean a trouble-free British Grand Prix weekend.
Button also feels team-mate Fernando Alonso found some good speed in the MP4-31, which is running with an upgraded Honda power unit this weekend for the first time.
“I had a tricky afternoon session: I did one lap on the Prime tyre at the start of the session, then had a problem and had to sit in the garage for half an hour, then went out and completed one lap, had another problem, and was only able to get out on the Option tyre at the very end,” said Button.
“Hopefully the problems we encountered today will be resolved by tomorrow and we can get some running in – fortunately, it appears to be more about number-crunching on the laptops than anything else, so we should be able to get back on track.
“Nonetheless, it still looks like it’ll be difficult to get into Q3 tomorrow, but if we get a clear morning session, I think that would help improve our fortunes for qualifying.
“Fernando found some good pace today – so tomorrow my car will hopefully be fitted with new components, we’ll get some positive running under our belts, and we’ll look a bit more competitive, too.”
