• Monaco Grand Prix

Button searches for balance after 'tough weekend'

Jenson Button was unable to find a way past Heikki Kovalainen © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Monaco Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Jenson Button

• Teams:
• McLaren

Jenson Button said that finding a better balance would be crucial to his future races after a frustrating Monaco Grand Prix weekend.

Having struggled in qualifying and only started 12th on the grid at Monte Carlo, Button was caught up in a first corner incident that left him even further back in the midfield. Stuck behind the Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen, Button was unable to find a way through and ended up spinning and retiring with a puncture after attempting an ambitious move in to the swimming pool chicane. Button admitted that he was unable to pass the slower car around the streets but said his retirement put him out of his misery.

"It wasn't really a fight with Kovalainen, if you place your car in the right place you can't overtake and he kept doing that," Button said. "I mean, it's impossible. It's quite frustrating when you're so much quicker but you can't overtake, so game over. At least I didn't have to do the last eight laps - that's one way of looking at it - and feel pain for even longer, but it's over now and we can look forward to qualifying better and then not getting unlucky. We were very unlucky at the start and that's what dropped me down so far so, tough weekend."

Looking to how he would improve his form, Button said the key would be finding a better balance in qualifying.

"I've got to be quicker in qualifying and to do that I need to find a balance that I like with the car and just try and find a consistent car really. At the start of the week it seems good and then in qualifying it's not, so hopefully we can find that one.

"I suppose when you put yourself that far back in qualifying it's easy for things to happen around you, but I couldn't have been any unluckier at the start. Kobayashi almost landed on top of me because he got launched from someone else and I was stuck at the exit of Ste Devote. But that's the way it is and these guys are having their day today and hopefully it'll come for us sooner rather than later."

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