Jenson Button was disappointed to qualify in 11th position but is hoping to play around with the strategy and gain positions in the Grand Prix. Jenson Button was disappointed to qualify in 11th position but is hoping to play around with the strategy and gain positions in the Grand Prix.

Jenson Button feels he could have made the top ten in Austria had he not been blocked by a Lotus during qualifying.

The Briton bounced back from missing the final four minutes of Practice Three when his brakes caught fire to finish 11th quickest, but the McLaren man felt it could have been even better.

Asked by Natalie Pinkham how much the limited running had hurt his day Button said: “Quite a bit, but I think we would have been in the top ten if my last run had worked out.

“I was behind the Lotus, seven seconds behind him, but proceeded to lock up at every corner and eventually pulled over, but it cost me a lot of time.

“But it is not so bad, we are 11th, we can run new tyres at the start of the race and can play around with the strategy. It has worked for Force India in the past so we can see if it can work for us."

Button’s team-mate Kevin Magnussen will start from sixth on Sunday, but he too felt there was more to come from the McLaren.

“If everything had been perfect today, I think we could have been in the top five,” the Dane said.

“I made a tiny mistake at the final corner on my final lap in Q3, but, even so, I’m happy enough with how things went today. And I think the whole team can feel satisfied, too: we’re definitely making progress, so we just need to keep it up now.

“It’s also nice to see a bit more of a mixed-up grid. It’s quite surprising that the gap to Mercedes has been closed so quickly, and it’s good to see a Williams on pole.

“Looking ahead to tomorrow, I don’t know if our race pace will be as strong as our qualifying pace was today. But we’ll do our best.”

This weekend’s Austrian GP is live only on Sky Sports F1. Race Day coverage begins with the Track Parade at 11.30am on Sunday