• Italian Grand Prix - FP2

McLaren still just off front running pace - Button

ESPN Staff
September 6, 2013 « Vettel predicts tight qualifying despite dominating practice | Red Bull uncatchable - Grosjean »
Jenson Button: "There are a lot of cars that are just in front, it's so close you can almost touch them" © Sutton Images
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Jenson Button reckons McLaren is just shy of the top four teams at the Italian Grand Prix, but still thinks it will be difficult to break into the top ten in qualifying.

Button was ninth fastest in second practice, 0.623s adrift of Sebastian Vettel's best time, but was just 0.013s off Felipe Massa's Ferrari. However, he suspects McLaren will struggle to feature in the top eight places in qualifying and may even struggle to make Q3.

"It is where we are at the moment," he said. "Whether we can go any quicker, I don't know. We tried quite a lot today, which is good and gives us lots of information from lots of laps. It doesn't feel too bad.

"FP1 was better for us and FP2 we weren't quite as competitive. We ended up 0.5s off second place, which is not too bad but I think there is a little bit more left in the car that we can get out in qualifying. Qualifying in Q3 would be nice, but it's still not going to be easy."

Button said McLaren would not fall into the trap of chasing a quick qualifying time at the expense of the McLaren's race pace.

"It's an interesting pack. There are a lot of cars that are just in front, it's so close you can almost touch them. We're going to work as hard as we can overnight. We know the race is more important than qualifying but we will do what we can in qualifying."

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