• Spanish Grand Prix - Qualifying

Perez encouraged by 'great lap'

Sergio Perez outqualified team-mate Jenson Button for the first time this season © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Spanish Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Sergio Perez

• Teams:
• McLaren

Sergio Perez said he delivered "a great lap" to get through to Q3 in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.

With Jenson Button languishing in 14th place, Perez delivered a lap some 0.6s quicker than his team-mate and made it in to the top ten. He couldn't improve his time in the final part of qualifying, but Perez said a difficult final practice session had made his progression in to Q3 all the sweeter.

"I think definitely it was a very good lap, taking the maximum out of the car," Perez said. "The tyres are so critical that if you have a bad corner it's very difficult to recover. Having a bad corner is overheating the tyre and then it costs you a lot; a lot more than before. Especially with a difficult car at the moment, we are having a difficult car and we had a very difficult session in practice three; had a problem in to the right-hand corners. It was a difficult session so I think it was a great lap."

Team-mate Button felt that he had a tyre pressure issue on his final run but said the team would have to wait until later on Saturday to know for certain.

"We're not actually sure yet, we have to wait for the tyres to cool down," he said. "In the data it's that they're offset, but maybe it's an issue with sensors so we don't know that yet."

Button also admitted that tomorrow's race will be "tricky" from his lowly grid position.

"So, tomorrow, from 14th on the grid, whatever we do will be difficult. It'll be a tricky afternoon, but we'll definitely do our best to make the best of it."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.