McLaren driver Jenson Button has revealed that a power issue was to blame for his early exit in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Englishman will start 16th for the race, but insists that an ERS failure cost him signifcantly.

He is quoted as saying by Autosport: "We got the best out of the car in qualifying, in terms of the balance of the car it felt good, but I didn't have any deployment all the way down the straight.

"It's quite a lot of power, over three tenths of lap time, so a massive amount before you have even arrived at Turn 1. It was OK after then. We were just unlucky I guess because we have never seen anything like it before.

"It's is a tough one. We didn't see this one coming. We'll learn from it and hopefully it won't be an issue again."

Button's teammate, Fernando Alonso, will start 15th after his engine failed.