• Hungarian Grand Prix - Qualifying

Button reveals qualifying damage

ESPN Staff
July 28, 2012 « Grosjean 'surprised' to be on front row | Massa unhappy with car in Q3 »
Jenson Button is unsure when he sustained damage to his McLaren © Press Association
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Jenson Button revealed that he was hampered during qualifying by some damage that he had picked up during the session.

While team-mate Lewis Hamilton comfortably took pole position, Button was fourth quickest but over 0.6s slower than the lead McLaren. While Button acknowledged that Hamilton has looked like the man to beat so far at the Hungaroring, he said that he had damaged the car during qualifying although he was unaware of it at the time.

"I think Lewis has shown all weekend that he's been very, very quick," Button said. "It wasn't assured that he was going to get pole position but he's obviously driven very well this weekend and he's got the balance and he showed that by the lap time in qualifying. For me it was a little bit trickier in qualifying; I struggled a little bit more to get the pace and the balance.

"I don't know when, but I hit something. I don't know when it was in the [session] and got some damage to the car. But still, we wouldn't have been anywhere near Lewis I don't think. So fourth isn't too bad; I think if you can look at it as a bad day and still be fourth I think that's reasonably good and we can race very well from there tomorrow."

Button added that the main disappointment was starting from the dirtier side of the grid.

"It's a pity that I just missed out on P3 at the end of Q3, because the odd-number side of the circuit is quite a bit cleaner than the even-number side. If I'd stayed in P3, it would have made it a bit easier to get a good start tomorrow. But P4 isn't too bad."

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