Button was hoping for more

The Hungarian Grand Prix winner will start from sixth place following a penalty to Ralf Schumacher for changing the engine of his Toyota.

Button was nearly a second off pole position, but the Briton is still optimistic things can improve in the race.

"I was obviously hoping for something more from qualifying today, although we have been struggling a little bit in the last sector here - on the long straight and the three very slow corners at the end," said Button. "That's where we have been losing out to Alonso.

"On the positive side we have been looking good on the long runs, as we demonstrated on Friday and this morning. So it's looking like we could be better off in the race, in which case P6 on the grid isn't so bad."

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello endured a disappointing day after struggling with his car's balance. He finished 14th.

"Unfortunately I didn't have a good balance with the car for the whole qualifying session today," said Barrichello. "It was quite strange because the car felt much better this morning throughout practice, so we have to look at that and see what has happened.

"So that was my qualifying today but we know that the car has a good race pace, plus we can choose our fuel level from here, so I am hopeful that we can have a decent race tomorrow and I can fight my way through the field."