29 August,2009 07:21 AM IST | | PA Sport
Jenson Button fears suffering another dose of the qualifying blues on Saturday that could further undermine his Formula One world title hopes.
The Brawn driver has struggled over one lap in the last four Grands Prix, and that has compromised his race, coming away with just 11 points in total from Britain, Germany, Hungary and Valencia. After finishing 17th in practice around the Spa circuit yesterday, a downbeat Button said: "I'm not 100% happy with the car at the moment. We definitely don't have a tyre temperature issue here. The tyres are working. They're very hot. I'm sure it's down to some of the things we've done to the car to help with that, but also the asphalt is quite abrasive.
"In fact, a lot of people are struggling in their long runs with overheating, so that is something to watch out for here. We still have to work on our qualifying pace because we're not that strong over one lap. We're not on the pace of the Red Bulls and some of the other teams over one lap."
The likelihood is Button's lead over Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, currently 20.5 and 25 points respectively, will be eroded this weekend. Button added: "This is the perfect circuit for a Red Bull car, so we have to hope we can be as close as possible and nibble some more points off them.
