• Monaco Grand Prix FP2

'A lot less degradation' - Button

ESPNF1 Staff
May 26, 2011 « Monaco hides Ferrari's flaws - Alonso | »
Jenson Button said he still needed to make some minor changes to the car © Getty Images
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Jenson Button said that the Pirelli tyres were degrading much less than he had expected in practice for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Tyres have been one of the main focuses at every grand prix weekend so far this season, and Monaco was expected to be no different as Pirelli supplies the soft and super-soft compounds. After setting the fourth fastest time of the afternoon session, Button said that the tyres had held up well, but that he still wasn't sure what was likely to be the best strategy over a race distance.

"I feel more comfortable with the car than I did last year, but there are still a few areas that need tweaking," Button said. "Our car feels reasonably quick, but there's an awful lot of competition out there. There's a lot less degradation than I think we all expected. I did a long-run on the Super-Soft, and while there's some degradation, it's reasonably good. The same is true of the harder tyre. But it's still not easy to decide what strategy will work best around here on Sunday afternoon."

Button also said he had spent the morning session discovering where best to use the DRS and KERS boost throughout the lap, and praised the FIA's decision not to allow the DRS to be used in the tunnel.

"First lap out is always a shock because it's so slippery. But once the grip goes down, the car works well and it's really fun to be out there. DRS and KERS Hybrid both work around here - I have no issues about deploying DRS, but I'm happy we can't use it in the tunnel; the FIA definitely made the right decision there."

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