• Spanish Grand Prix

Button failing to hit McLaren's sweetspot

Jenson Button had a difficult Friday in the McLaren © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
• Jenson Button
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• Spanish Grand Prix - Free Practice 1 & 2

Jenson Button has admitted he still has plenty of work to do to get his McLaren up to speed around the Circuit de Catalunya before qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.

The McLarens topped the timesheets in practice one but failed to improve on their times in the afternoon session when they bolted on the softer, stickier option tyres. Button said it had been a confusing 90 minutes and is not convinced he and the team are extracting the maximum performance from the updated MP4-25.

"This afternoon we embarked on some set-up changes that we thought were headed in the right direction, but I'm not sure if they were," said Button. "So there's a lot of work still to be done on both tyres - some of it is possibly set-up, and some of it is getting the tyres in their correct working range.

"This afternoon was a very tricky session. A few teams were already getting their cars to work well, so we should be able to get there too. But there's a lot to be done this evening to figure out exactly why our car didn't feel as we expected it to. I don't think it's an issue of the new components working or not, I think it's more about not turning the tyres on properly, or not working them in the correct way. We've got a lot of data to go through, but I'm certain we can make some improvements and come back with a stronger car for tomorrow."

Lewis Hamilton was happier with his McLaren but said it still wasn't clear quite how much the car had been improved.

"It was quite windy today, so, despite running right through our programme, we struggled a little bit, particularly at the end when we changed to the option tyre and encountered a bit of traffic. The new parts have definitely given us a step forward, but we don't yet know how big that step is compared to our rivals.

"Generally, however, the car doesn't feel too bad. Hopefully, we'll be able to make some further set-up changes overnight, too. Tomorrow we'll just be focusing on our programme, pushing the envelope, and analysing everything we can to make sure we're as competitive as we can possibly be."

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