McLaren driver Jenson Button has admitted that an error towards the end of the second part of qualifying cost him a place in the top 10 at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Button will start Sunday's race at Marina Bay from 11th on the grid, but the 2009 world champion admits that even making progress in Q3 may have been difficult.

He told reporters: "On my final, critical run in Q2, I lost quite a lot of time at the hairpin – I locked up the fronts and ran wide - and I dropped a couple of tenths.

"After that it was always going to be very close – but, even if I'd got through to the top 10, I think it would have been difficult to make much further progress up the Q3 order.

"I haven't looked too deeply at the strategy for tomorrow yet, but hopefully the ability to choose our starting tyre will help us make some progress."

Button is currently seventh in the drivers' championship, 168 points behind leader Nico Rosberg.