- Abu Dhabi GP - Qualifying
Button: McLaren expected better than eighth
Jenson Button says he expected better than eighth on the grid in Abu Dhabi despite running low on mileage after issues in Friday practice.
Button had his running in FP1 and FP2 limited by a suspension and then hydraulic issue which shortened the amount of long-run data he was able to obtain. He made it into Q3 but was unable to get ahead of either Red Bull or Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat, something he struggled to explain.
"Overall I'm a bit disappointed really," Button said. "In Q3 I really struggled on the last run. For some reason the cars in front were massively slow. I think all three of us struggled because of that. The Williams was slow and then Fernando struggled, actually aborting his lap. I had massive locking everywhere so that's a shame, I think we were six or seven hundredths off sixth - Vettel - and that's what we were hoping for.
"It's not great but considering the disaster yesterday I think as a team we've done a very good job of bringing it back and finding a reasonable balance. Fair play to the guys, a day like yesterday is very, very difficult so thank you to them."
Button's future continues to dominate the news, with McLaren still delaying its 2015 driver announcement. When told he had out-qualified team-mate Kevin Magnussen, who lines up 11th, Button replied: "There's a bit of a battle there, isn't there?"
If McLaren opts to drop Button it could be his last weekend in Formula One but the 2009 world champion is just focusing on enjoying the race.
When asked his target for Sunday, Button said: "To have fun out there. It's not a circuit renowned for its great races, in terms of fights, but that's what I want tomorrow. Hopefully it will be moving forward fighting and not moving back. There's some tough competitors around me and we'll see what we can do on the strategy. Obviously I lost out on a lot of long running so I don't know where the car is. On the option tyre I understand the car pretty well but on the prime I have no idea."
Button will actually start from sixth after Red Bull was excluded from qualifying and relegated to the back row of the grid.
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