Jenson Button was not completely dissatisfied with his qualifying performance on Saturday, and will start thirteenth on the grid at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
The McLaren-Honda Formula 1 Team racer felt that his final two sectors of his best lap were good, but was disappointed with the first sector, where many drivers up and down the field struggled to get the best from their tyres.
Button feels McLaren could have locked out the sixth row of the grid for the Mexican Grand Prix but for that issue, but is pleased that he will start on the cleaner side of the grid with a potentially stronger race pace than qualifying pace.
“My run on the old tyres in Q2 was actually my best lap – I just couldn’t get the new tyres working in Sector One on my final run so I lost three-tenths there,” said Button. “Sectors Two and Three were good, but I couldn’t get the balance right in Sector One.
“Realistically, eleventh and twelfth would probably have been the best possible scenario for us, as it would have been perfect for the race. But eleventh and thirteenth isn’t so bad either, especially as I’ll start from the clean side of the track and we get to do our own tyre strategy, which is exactly what you want for a race like this.
“When you’re in the top 10, ninth or tenth is not a good thing because you’re stuck if you’ve run the Supersoft in Q2. It’s a tough tyre to manage and I think tomorrow we may have a better strategy. Hopefully our race pace will be better tomorrow than our quali pace was today – we’re not in bad shape and I’m looking forward to the race.”
