Rear wing issue continues Button Silverstone curse
Jenson Button's hopes of giving the Silverstone crowd a second reason to be happy in qualifying for the British Grand Prix were scuppered early on when a rear wing issue pitched him out at the first hurdle.
A detachment at the back of his McLaren-Honda would consign him to the garage during the crucial final stages of Q1, giving him no chance to react as Kevin Magnussen and then Daniil Kvyat leapfrogged him on the timesheets.
Leaving him 17th, there was some confusion when it appeared Magnussen was to lose his best time - lifting Button back into Q2 - but the decision came after the session had started, adding to the Briton's frustration.
"The rear wing became detached through Turn 8. It just slowly deteriorated from there with the rear end of the car, so yeah we lost a lot of down force and that was it really. We tried to fix it to go out again but there wasn't enough time.
"[I got in the car again] because supposedly Kevin drove off the circuit in three places. I don't know I haven't seen it but that's why, and we thought he'd get his lap taken away."
Despite the lowly starting position, Button still believes a top ten finish is in the offing, saying he certainly shouldn't be losing any positions.
"You've got to think of points still, where we are I think anything can happen. We're good at starts, it's a very different starting position from my last race but I suppose the positive is that we shouldn't be losing places we should be gaining places, with the tyres the way they are, they are on the edge and hopefully we can make it work."