Button: McLaren's Suzuka struggles no surprise

McLaren driver Jenson Button says the MP4-31 was always going to struggle for pace around Suzuka, although he concedes the pace is slightly worse than expected.

Jenson Button, McLaren talks to engineers in the garage

After solid runs in Singapore and Malaysia, the Woking-based team had a very low-key qualifying performance at its engine partner Honda's home track at Suzuka.

Button was eliminated in Q1 in 17th, while Fernando Alonso clocked in at just 15th in Q2 - the lowest qualifying result for the lead McLaren since Brazil 2015.

"You always hope for a lot, because it's Honda's home grand prix - but it's not a good circuit for us," Button said.

"It's got some long straights, got a lot of mid-high-speed corners without braking - heavy braking - which is a weakness of ours.

"We're very strong with heavy braking corners and low-speed corners, but not in the corners when you're not braking heavily. Floor not close to the ground, it doesn't work as well.

"Tough weekend, probably a little bit worse than we expected, still.

"It's one of our toughest circuits - if not the toughest."

Button, however, was not too discouraged by his own performance, coming up just 0.032s short of Alonso and a Q2 transfer spot in Q1 after a problem-filled start to his Suzuka weekend.

"All weekend it's been a struggle for me, on Friday we had a set-up that wasn't working at all, this morning the set-up was much better, but we had an issue with the power unit and we were down on power a lot.

"They promised me they'd get it right in qualifying with my power unit - and they have - and we're three hundredths slower than my teammate, who just got through to Q2.

"Three hundredths off of Fernando, who's had a very straightforward weekend, is not horrific."