Tough going for Button in Japan

RUBENS BARRICHELLO

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Friday 10th October 2008

Jenson Button believes it is too early to say how he will perform in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix after struggling in practice on Friday.

The 28-year-old Honda driver was 17th fastest in the morning on a dry Fuji Speedway circuit before finishing bottom of the pile in the afternoon.

Button bemoaned a lack of grip on the new tyres late on and believes there is still some work to do before the weekend.

"I struggled a little bit," he said. "In the second-to-last run I got a bit of balance so ran a bit more normal which was positive but on the option tyres at the end for some reason there was no grip.

"I don't really know about saying there is a lot of work to do but we have just got to realise why that was.

"We just have to run through the data and look at where we are losing. We are struggling a bit with the traction at the moment."

Button, who has yet to be confirmed at Honda for next season, refused to make predictions for the weekend until the team have looked into the problems with the car.

"I don't know," he added. "It is still Friday and we don't know what the weather will be and we don't know how quick the car is because we have been struggling a bit with the balance.

"If we can solve that then I could say a bit more."

Button's team-mate Rubens Barrichello was much more optimistic for the weekend following his 15th place finish in the second session.

The Brazilian, who like Button still faces an uncertain future, has collected 11 points this season and is confident of at least reaching Q2 on Saturday.

"Just like last year we have had a dry first day of practice," he said.

"By the end of the afternoon we were able to achieve a reasonable balance with the car on new tyres.

"If it stays dry then I believe we have a chance to progress to the second qualifying session."

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Your Comments

mossmusic

"Just let the teams run on hard slicks, that would be interesting!"

gcokrox

"coz it makes the race interesting"

Medhatter

"Since Max is always banging on about saving money, why doesn't he get rid of his "must use both tyre types" rule? Bringing one type of tyre compound reduces tyre costs and also lets teams focus on getting the car to work with that compound instead of spending time trying to get a balance with both."

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