Button's dismal qualifying run continues

Silverstone, July 7, 2012 (AFP) - Jenson Button's dismal qualifying run went from bad to worse on Saturday when he qualified 18th during the rain-soaked qualifying session for Sunday's British Grand Prix.

The 32-year-old McLaren driver, who has never been on the podium in front of his English home crowd at Silverstone, failed to escape the cut in Q1 after struggling to cope with the amount of traffic and wet track conditions. Despite a relatively dry run in the morning, the rain arrived moments before qualifying started, forcing all 24 drivers to take to the track
desperately trying to set a decent time before conditions worsened.

In spite of this, the 2009 champion's best time of one minute 48.044 was almost a second slower than 17th fastest driver Brazilian Brunos Senna of Williams.

The Englishman, whose season got off to a flying start when he won the opening race in Australia, has been struggling with his qualifying pace since the Spanish Grand Prix in May, reaching Q3 only once in the last four races, but Saturday's result was his worst of the season.