Jenson Button was left to rue a lack of front-end grip in qualifying at the Yas Marina Circuit this evening, revealing that his car suffered large amounts of understeer in the final sector of the lap. The Briton took provisional pole with his fastest effort, only to be beaten by Red Bull rival Sebastian Vettel and McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
"I wouldn’t say it was a surprise, but we know the pace is in the car and it was about finding the right balance," Button said during the post-qualifying press conference. "I haven’t felt 100 percent comfortable with the balance of the car this weekend, but we’ve improved it and tried a few different things.
"We were finally getting there in qualifying, but Q3 was very strange because there wasn’t much grip with the cooler circuit. The car was acting differently which was in some ways good for me because I couldn’t get enough front-end into the car, all weekend I’ve been struggling with a nervous rear.
"Finally when we get into qualifying I had massive amounts of understeer, more in the direction that I like but in the tight section at the end of the lap you need a reasonably pointy car and I didn’t have that.
"It wasn’t a bad lap but still, as Lewis said, the car is working well around here. It’s obviously not perfect, Seb did a good job and put it on pole, so we’ll have to challenge from behind tomorrow."
Further post-qualifying feelings from McLaren:
Hamilton hails 'big improvement' in Abu Dhabi
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:38.481 | 16 |
| 2. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 01:38.622 | 15 |
| 3. | J. Button | McLaren | 01:38.631 | 14 |
| 4. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:38.858 | 19 |
| 5. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:39.058 | 16 |
| 6. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 01:39.695 | 20 |
| 7. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 01:39.773 | 17 |
| 8. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 01:40.662 | 18 |
| 9. | A. Sutil | Force India | 01:40.768 | 17 |
| 10. | P. di Resta | Force India | no time | 15 |
| Full results | ||||
| Jenson Button | |||
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| More Jenson Button photos | |||
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