Without Alonso, McLaren drivers struggle

Reigning World Champion Jenson Button is sure that McLaren is currently extracting the utmost from its MP4-25. Although teammate Lewis Hamilton suffered a difficult qualifying session at Albert Park on his way to 11th, last year's winner lines up on Row 2 alongside the Ferrari of championship leader Fernando Alonso. Having ended third free practice sixth, Button improved to fourth in qualifying but is disappointed to have not enjoyed a stronger running pace. It's clear that without Fernando Alonso there to tell the McLaren engineers what the car needs to improve, Hamilton and Button are like a ship without a paddle, clueless on how to get to the top.

"We had quite a difficult day," Jenson told the BBC. "For some reason there was less grip today than yesterday. In qualifying our pace was not good enough, if you look at the pace that the boys managed to drive at the front.

"During my last run the balance of the car was not as good as earlier in qualifying, so that was a little frustrating – I maybe lost a tenth because of that but I wouldn't have been higher up on the grid. We are currently getting the maximum we can from the car."