Jenson Button believes his tire strategy for the Japanese Grand Prix is a sensible gamble, with the World Champion the only man in the top 10 choosing to start on the harder Bridgestone tire.
McLaren driver Button was sixth fastest and said that the tire choice made sense to him as he had felt less comfortable on the soft rubber in practice.
"I felt better on the prime," he told television reporters. "Obviously, when you get more and more soft tire rubber down, maybe it doesn't work as well, but I was pretty happy.
"It's possibly a gamble. I don't think it's a big one. The soft tire for us on Friday was a bit difficult to handle, so we'll see what it's like on the prime. Everyone else is on the soft tire and overtaking is always difficult around here, but we'll give it a shot."
However, he was slightly frustrated with how qualifying had worked out, as his tactic of trying three flying laps in a single run had not paid off.
"I couldn't find any more with the tire and I tried to do a third lap, which didn't work," said Button, who moves up to fifth on the grid thanks to his teammate Lewis Hamilton's penalty. "Looking at it, we should've just done one lap with the tire, and then you save six kilos of fuel, which is about two tenths, so that's a little bit frustrating really. But it's not too bad, I'll be starting the race from fifth and on a different strategy to everyone else, so we'll see how it works."