• Korean Grand Prix - Qualifying

Frustrated Button wants rule clarity

Jenson Button missed out on a place in Q3 having slowed for yellow flags in the final sector © Press Association

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• Report:
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• Race:
• Korean Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Jenson Button

• Teams:
• McLaren

Jenson Button admitted he was frustrated to miss out on Q3 due to a yellow flag and thinks the rule which concerns setting a quicker sector time under yellows needs reviewing.

Having had a poor first run in Q2 Button slowed for Daniel Ricciardo's stricken Toro Rosso at the end of the session and failed to improve, while Kimi Raikkonen, Romain Grosjean and Nico Rosberg all bettered their times to push Button down to 11th place. He said that he was unaware what the punishment would be for a driver ignoring yellow flags in qualifying but could see a situation where it would be to their advantage to continue at full speed.

"If your sector is not faster then they will not check whether you lifted, but if you set a green sector they will check if you lifted at the incident," Button said. "It's a difficult one; if you don't lift I don't know what the penalty is. It's something we need to look at because if you don't lift and you qualify through to Q3 and you put it on pole you might lose five places with a penalty but you're still sixth instead of 11th. So it's a tricky one, but obviously the aim is to lift because there's an incident; that's what you should be doing."

Button admitted it was frustrating to not be able to exploit the full pace of the McLaren having looked quick in practice on Friday - especially in race trim - but he said he would still have a quick car on Sunday.

"On the option tyre the balance wasn't as good as the prime - the prime was working really well in Q1 - and obviously the pace was really good yesterday on the long run with high fuel. So it's a bit frustrating because it was so good yesterday, but we still have that pace and I think from 11th you still have a lot of options because you have new tyres on both compounds.

"I made a little mistake - actually it wasn't little, it was quite a big mistake - at the start of Q2 in the last sector. And then in the last sector on the last lap there were yellow flags so I wasn't able to go quicker. Disappointing, but I'm still looking forward to a very exciting race."

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