Jenson Button has blamed a loss of power during the closing minutes of the final qualifying session for his lacklustre performance.
The McLaren driver will start 9th, whilst his less experienced team-mate Sergio Perez starts two places higher in 7th.
Button believes he could have achieved more.
“I’m not sure what happened on my final lap in Q3. We had an issue with the car right at the end – I didn’t have any power, so I couldn’t post a quick lap,” he explained.
“It’s a pity because, apart from that problem, which we also saw a sign of at the end of Q2, it had been a great qualifying session for me. The team did a great job in terms of putting me out on the right tyres at the right time, while I felt I was driving well, making the most of the conditions.
“Tomorrow’s race will be difficult, starting from P9, but on this occasion there’s absolutely nothing I could have done about it.”
Martin Whitmarsh says the team will investigate the as yet unknown issue, but early reports suggest a fuel pump issue.
“We don’t yet know for certain what caused that power loss, but we’d already seen signs of it at the end of Q2. We’ll investigate,” he added.
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