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Michael defends Button's driving style

Jenson Button has struggled to match Lewis Hamilton in recent races © Sutton Images

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McLaren sporting director Sam Michael has dismissed the notion that Jenson Button is more sensitive to the Pirelli tyres than team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Button is searching for the answers to a run that has seen him score just two points in the last four races while Hamilton has taken 43 points in that time. In Canada Button was even lapped by his team-mate, but when asked if Button needed a car with a more precise set-up, Michael disagreed saying that the two drivers' set-ups - and therefore the operating window for the tyres - are very similar.

"He doesn't require a more precise set-up than Lewis," Michael is quoted by Sporting Life. "Most of the time they drive very similar set-up cars. There's always a few little tweaks that the drivers make because they might have a slight difference in style, but he is in no way more sensitive to the car than what Lewis is."

Looking back at the Canadian Grand Prix, Michael said that the team had made a few errors in Button's approach, but had learnt from the lack of performance in the race.

"With Jenson in Canada, if you go back to the start of the weekend we had quite a few problems with his gearbox on Friday and he lost a lot of track time because of that. From that point on, we tried a few different things with his car set-up to try to explore different areas, and in hindsight we probably shouldn't have done that. The wear profile on his tyres was extremely different to what Lewis had and there are certain reasons for that which we believe we've understood and can easily put right for Valencia."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.