Jenson Button hopes McLaren-Honda can improve the MP4-31 overnight after having problems during the opening day of practice for the Singapore Grand Prix.
The Briton had a difficult morning session after grounding to a halt early in the session, with the marshals having to push him back into the pits. McLaren were able to repair the car for Button to return to the track and finish sixteenth. The problems from the morning seemed to disappear, Button was able to improve for McLaren and finish the session in twelfth, with a time of 1:46.574.
Button believes there’s quite a lot of work that McLaren need to achieve before they can be as competitive as they want to be this weekend.
“When I stopped the car on track,” said Button. “I was fortunate enough to be pushed back to the pits because there wasn’t an opening on the circuit to park the car.
“Our pace hasn’t been quite as good today as we’d anticipated. As a result, we’ve got quite a lot of work to do before we can be as competitive as we want to be this weekend. We just couldn’t quite access the grip out there today, so we’re going to need a decent gain in pace to be competitive.
“Having said all that, hopefully we can improve things overnight – it’s going to be a busy evening.”
