• Canadian Grand Prix - FP2

Gearbox problem stalls McLaren's progress

Jenson Button: "We needed the car to be reliable and it wasn't today" © Sutton Images

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Jenson Button was left ruing a gearbox problem in Friday practice that meant he did not get the mileage he wanted to on McLaren's development parts.

Button was second fastest in the changing conditions in FP1 and ninth fastest in FP2 but was limited to 29 laps and missed out on heavy-fuel running due to the issue. He said McLaren may not be able to run its new parts now because it did not get conclusive test mileage over the two sessions.

"We were trying something in that session that was quite interesting but we didn't get the information because I did three laps on high fuel," he said. "We would be very brave to put that part on the car if we've only done three laps on it. We had that issue last year and when I also had a gearbox problem and then a disastrous race because of rear graining. We needed the car to be reliable and it wasn't today. But there is a lot info to look at on both cars and they were running very different set-ups and downforce levels, so at least we got some information."

Button was only 0.604s off Fernando Alonso's fastest time but said it is race pace that really matters.

"We're closer than normal but I think everyone is close between the teams," he added. "The long runs are the ones to look at really and we can still see that the quick cars still have a big advantage. The thing in qualifying here is that if it is dry it will be about whether you can get the lap on the first flying lap because it's taking people a lot of time. That's something we need to work on. Also the conditions could be very mixed."

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