Russian GP: Jenson Button relieved with fourth after practice slump
Jenson Button said there was reason to be happy with his fourth place on the grid for the Russian Grand Prix after McLaren's final practice nightmares
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."
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