Button says 13th was best possible result

The British driver, still searching for his first points of the season, struggled with the handling of his car during the second qualifying segment and missed out on the top ten once again.

Button admitted, however, he was closer than expected to the cars in front of him.

"The car felt good for my first run in Q1, then I had some problems getting started again after the weighbridge and after that the car felt very different," said Button.

"I had to keep having adjustments made to the front wing and we struggled to find a good balance round the whole lap.

"I got all of the performance possible out of the car for my final run in Q2 and that's where we are really. The times were very close with some of the cars just in front of me, which is a surprise. We will have to see what happens in the race."

Rubens Barrichello endured similar fortunes in today's sessions, the Brazilian winding up 15th, also having problems with the handling of his car.

"It has been a tough day for us today," he said. "It was very hard to get a real balance in the car and from run to run it felt very different. I had a lot of oversteer on my final run in Q2, so that didn't help me right at the end. I did as much as I could today and am disappointed not to make it into the third qualifying session.

"We will have to hope that our strategy allows us to make the most of any opportunity to improve during the race and move us through the field."