Russian GP: Jenson Button relieved with fourth after practice slump

The 2009 Formula 1 champion had been bullish about his Sochi prospects following a good run on Friday, but it all went wrong on Saturday morning.

Button could not extract pace out of the car in final practice, while team-mate Kevin Magnussen caused a red flag when stopped by a gearbox failure.

After fearing that McLaren was heading for disappointment, a change to the set-up of the car transformed Button's pace and helped him to his best qualifying performance since the British GP.

"I felt it was a good lap," he said. "FP1 and FP2 for us were looking very strong. Both tyres worked for both of us and the long runs seemed good.

"But FP3 seemed a bit of disaster. Kevin had his problems and the pace wasn't there, so we had to have a rethink and make some set-up changes to go back on some that we had made overnight.

"We were competitive all the way through qualifying and it was a really good feeling. It gave me quite a lot of confidence going into Q3 and on both tyres.

"I think it was a good job by the whole team to stay calm after a tough FP3.

"I don't think fourth was too bad. Yesterday we would have expected P4, this morning we were thinking it would be tough to get into Q3 so I am very happy with P4."

TROUBLED DAY FOR MAGNUSSEN

Magnussen had a more difficult qualifying at Sochi, going into it aware that he would have a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change after final practice.

The Dane finished sixth overall, having been hampered by a fuel-flow sensor problem that forced him to turn his engine down.

"On the first run I made a mistake on my lap, and it was a one-lap run, so I just aborted the lap and came into the pits," he said.

"There were no problems with the car in the first run, we just made a mistake.

On the second run in Q3, we had a problem with the FIA fuel flow meter and had to turn the power down on the engine compared to Q2.

"So I was a little bit down on Q2 which explains some of the loss of pace."