• Turkish Grand Prix

Button rues timing of final run

Jenson Button's hot lap was ruined by yellow flags © Getty Images

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• Race:
• Turkish Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Jenson Button
• |
• Michael Schumacher

• Teams:
• McLaren

Jenson Button was left ruing his decision to leave his qualifying lap until the last minute, as he came across yellow flags in the fast turn eight and had to back off.

Michael Schumacher lost control of his Mercedes in the 170mph left-hander, meaning any car behind him on the track had to take it easy through that section. Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton were ahead of the accident and took the top two positions on the grid but Button finished fourth.

"The last run was a bit frustrating," he told TV reporters. "Being the last car on the circuit is sometimes a good thing because you get the cleanest track, but there's obviously more chance of someone going off and Michael went off in front of me on my last lap and when there's a yellow [flag] you've got to back out of it obviously. I just came straight in because it wasn't going to be quicker because of that. Wasn't perfect, but it's not bad to be P4 - on the dirty side of the grid - but we'll see what we can do from there."

He said the session had been positive overall but was concerned his set-up might be too close to the limit through turn eight.

"I think we are a lot closer to Red Bull than I expected this weekend, so it's positive. My biggest problem has been turn eight - I think we've run the car too low," he added. "I wanted to keep it low for the rest of the circuit so I'm hitting the ground so much through there and that's where my time loss is. It's a risk we took, but even so I'm fourth on the grid so it's not too bad."

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