Jenson Button blamed a driving error for his disappointing performance in qualifying for the European Grand Prix. The McLaren driver will start the race from seventh position after losing time due to a mistake on the final corner of his final lap in Q3. Without that, Button believes he would have been up in fourth position, behind teammate Lewis Hamilton.
"Qualifying was going to be tough for us, we thought here, with people having new updates, but it was all looking good until the last corner of qualifying," Button said. "I was pretty happy with the car and I locked up into the last corner. I got a bit of oversteer through the quick right-hander before that and I think I just set the car a little bit wrong for the last corner.
"I locked up and ran wide and lost two tenths, which was massive. That's P4, so it's very disappointing. Let's hope for a better race tomorrow."
The World Champion admitted he was surprised by the pace of the Red Bull cars, after Sebastian Vettel took pole position by fourth tenths over the first non-Red Bull car. Button reckons the blue cars will be very strong in the race too.
"Surprised by the speed of the Red Bulls and a little bit surprised... I thought the other cars would also be on the Red Bull's pace," Button said. "I think the Red Bulls have proved that they've got the F-duct working. So they are very competitive and I can't see them being slow in the race either. I spoke to Mark [Webber] yesterday and he seemed pretty confident."