Button could get gearbox change

Button lost third gear during his first run in Q1, leaving him languishing at the bottom of the timesheets.

And although the team are confident they can repair the individual components that broke to cause the problem, they may to decide to replace the full unit.

Team principal Ross Brawn said: "We had a problem with the dogs, the dogs got damaged. There was a problem with the setting and the gearbox quickly deteriorated.

"These gearboxes are very good, but if you get it slightly wrong then you are in trouble and that is what happened. It is something we can replace but we have to decide if we want to do that or replace the (whole) gearbox.

"We will make a decision tomorrow. We've had it apart tonight and we will review it and make a decision tomorrow."

With Button saved from the last slot on the grid thanks to Sebastien Bourdais' gearbox problem, the team have little to lose by changing the gearbox.

But by starting so far back, Brawn believes that the best chance of a good result was to fill Button's car up as much as possible with fuel and hope that likely safety cars helped him.

"Jenson's main hope is that he does run heavy and there are some safety cars at opportune moments that we can take advantage of," explained Brawn.