McLaren driver Jenson Button says something is “not quite right” after Friday practice for the Japanese Grand Prix.
The 2009 world champion struggled in comparison to his team-mate Fernando Alonso, ending FP1 and FP2 in 13th and 16th respectively.
He feels comfortable with the car over a single lap, but said longer runs were more problematic and feels something is not right with his car.
“On single-lap pace, the car doesn’t actually look too bad – I just didn’t get a great lap this afternoon,” he said.
“But if we can get a good lap together – which we’ll hopefully do tomorrow – we may be able to get into the top 10.
“However, our long-run pace is more of an issue – and that’s something we need to solve as it’s usually a forte of mine, and it wasn’t today.
“The degradation is significant, we’re some way off, and we’re looking into the reasons why.
“I think there’s something not quite right, as opposed to there being a set-up issue; but hopefully we can fix it by tomorrow.
He added that he’s hoping for rain over the Japanese GP weekend, as it would give him a better chance at a good result.
