Button hopeful of progress in race

"A reasonably positive Saturday," said the Honda driver, who scored his team's second point of the season at Monza last weekend.

"On the first run in Q1 I had traffic as I was running too close to the car in front of me. In Q2 I think I got the best out of the car on the first run. On the second run I had a little too much understeer so I just backed off and looked after the tyres for the race.

"I'm pretty happy with where I will be lining up on the grid and I think we can make progress from there. Aerodynamically this circuit hasn't really suited our car so I'm quite pleased with how qualifying went for us. I'm looking forward to the race," Button added.

The British driver will start from 13th place on the grid following a penalty to BMW's Robert Kubica.

Button's teammate Rubens Barrichello had a tougher day after he continued to struggle with the balance of his car.

The Brazilian will start from 18th place after missing the cut in the first qualifying segment.

"Since the beginning of the weekend we have been struggling with the aerodynamic balance of the car," he said. "We just don't have enough aerodynamic efficiency here. On my last run I requested more front wing and the car just gave me more understeer, so we need to understand the data.

"Obviously it will be a battle from 18th position but we will see what the race brings in order to try to improve."