McLaren was off the pace at the Friday's Practice sessions – Jenson Button
McLaren driver Jenson Button admitted that the McLarens were off the pace against rivals Red Bull Racing at Suzuka after finishing at sixth place during Friday’s practice session.
The reigning world champion complained that his car had too much understeer in the first sector and it was getting difficult for the team to create balance within the car. Jenson Button was a full second off from Sebastian Vettel’s fastest time.
“This morning was pretty tricky; I couldn't get a balance with the car at all, and was really struggling with understeer through the first sector. You give away so much time when you've got understeer through the esses because it's tougher to get the car to change direction,” said Button.
However, teammate Lewis Hamilton was looking good before his accident as he was leading the times. Hamilton set the fastest time of the session until then and was looking pretty satisfied with his car. On the other hand, his teammate Jenson Button was struggling immensely throughout the session and it seemed that McLaren was not having a great round of their “big tests” at Suzuka.
“For the afternoon, we made a few changes and the car felt a lot more responsive. We are quite a bit off the pace of the Red Bulls, but we've got to look at getting the best out of the new package that we've got. And that requires extensive testing, which can take a couple of runs,” he added.
Nevertheless, experts opine that these things usually happen during Friday practice sessions and McLaren should not quit so early. The team still has another practice session left on Saturday before qualifying and they can still make it. McLaren will have to work extremely hard if they want to stay in the championship.
Despite this disappointment, Jenson Button still seems hopeful that McLaren’s chances of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix have not decreased and the team still has a lot of potential for Suzuka.
“I don't think we got the best out of our new parts, but we've made some good steps forward. We did a good job today of improving the car, but there is still more to come. That's encouraging, we're just not there yet,” said the reigning world champion.
It will be interesting to see how both McLarens perform and what approach will they use at the final practice session on Saturday.
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