• Canadian GP - Qualifying

Button admits Hamilton was simply faster

Jenson Button struggled to get the soft tyre to work in Canada © Getty Images

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• Race:
• Canadian Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Jenson Button
• |
• Lewis Hamilton

• Teams:
• McLaren

Jenson Button admitted he had no excuse for qualifying 0.4 seconds off his McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Button has been complaining about a poor balance on the softer tyre since Friday practice and in Q3 could only muster the fifth fastest time behind Hamilton, the Red Bulls and Fernando Alonso's Ferrari.

"I was happy with my Q3 lap, but I couldn't touch Lewis - it was a phenomenal lap from him," he said. "He's qualified on pole every time he's been here, so he's obviously a specialist around this place. Fifth place isn't where I'd ideally like to be, but I gave it everything and I couldn't have gone any quicker."

Button said that the mix in tyre strategy for tomorrow's race could play to his strengths of managing the race.

"It's good to see that some teams were running different tyres in Q3 - that's the first time that's happened this year. Red Bull set their fastest laps on primes [hard tyres], so it's going to be an interesting start to the race, seeing if they can overtake. The prime is the quicker tyre, but they're going to have to change to the option [soft tyre] at some point during the race. And if they get stuck behind Lewis in the early laps, then I'm sure they're going to get frustrated. So, overall, I think it's going to be a good race - both fascinating and fun - and strategy will be very important: it will be all about tyre management, so going flat-out every lap might not be the quickest way to get to the end of the race in the shortest possible time."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.