• German Grand Prix - FP2

Button keen to run McLaren blown diffuser

Jenson Button is confident despite setting the 15th fastest time © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• News:
• McLaren to race blown diffuser
  
• News:
• Hamilton upset at mistake
  
• Report:
• Alonso returns to the top
  

• Race:
• German Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Jenson Button

• Teams:
• McLaren

Jenson Button is confident McLaren's blown diffuser was working during practice for the German Grand Prix and hinted that the team would keep it on the car for qualifying and the race.

Although there has been no official line on whether McLaren will continue to run the new floor, which Button struggled with when it was first introduced at the British Grand Prix two weeks ago, the initial reaction from the world champion was positive.

"The new floor appears to be working well," said Button. "We still need to look at the data to see how much of an improvement it's giving us, but there's no negative to it, which is great."

Rain limited McLaren's ability to get a full understanding of the new components, but Button said that running during the wet morning session had not all been in vain.

"This morning was useful, because there's a possibility of more rain tomorrow [Saturday]," he said. "But we didn't have a very good set-up for P1 in the wet - we changed the car over lunch, and I was much happier with the balance this afternoon.

"As always, we have to do things to make the car better. The long-run pace is pretty reasonable - I think we were expecting more issues with graining on the option, but it didn't seem to be a big issue. Hopefully, tomorrow's morning session will be dry so we can focus on some useful set-up work. Obviously, Lewis had a problem this morning, so I had a busy afternoon running through our long-run programme in P2."

Button only managed the 15th fastest time in the afternoon session but team principal Martin Whitmarsh said that could be explained by the amount of fuel he was carrying.

"This afternoon Jenson knuckled down to a disciplined programme of long running on heavy fuel loads, concentrating on race durability," Whitmarsh said. "We feel we have decent pace here - and, as I say, having concentrated largely on long running on heavy fuel loads today, will focus on qualifying practice tomorrow morning."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.