Button goes soft on Spanish tyre complications
Jenson Button topped the times in Friday practice for this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix and then revealed that he had found it difficult "to understand the tyres" supplied this weekend by Pirelli.
In particular, the McLaren driver said he struggled with the so-called ‘prime' harder tyre. He clocked his quickest time, he said, using the softer tyres.
"It was a good afternoon, but a tough one, trying to understand the tyres. And we still don't quite understand them, but the car seems to be working well on the soft tyres," said Button.
"On the hard tyre, I just can't get it working. I just can't get the temperature into the tyres. I don't know why it is, but it's something we need to sort out for Sunday."
He added that the performance difference between the two compounds had puzzled him.
"For me it felt massive, but for other people it wasn't the same," he said.
"For Lewis (teammate Hamilton), he seemed quicker on the prime than he was on the option and I was the other way around so it's a strange one.
"It's normally the other way around for me, so the prime would normally be a good tyre for me. Hopefully we can figure it out."
Hamilton, who wound up fourth fastest behind second placed double champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull and his compatriot Nico Rosberg of Mercedes, said he had not enjoyed a great day.
He struggled with the set-up of his car, which made the balance very inconsistent.
"I still smile, but it's not been a great day," he said.
"We struggled a little bit with the set-up, but the upgrades have worked pretty well. We have good pace, in particular in the longer runs.
"We are in the fight, at least, but we didn't really show it because we had a bit of an inconsistent set-up today, which means it's very difficult to pinpoint exactly what I need to do to change the set-up to make it better."
