For the third consecutive year, Button failed to make an impression in qualifying for his home race, finishing down in 17th position.
The Briton had qualified 19th in 2006 and 18th in 2007.
The Honda driver had a difficult session, but he admitted his car is just lacking pace.
"It was a disappointing qualifying session today for my home Grand Prix. The brief rain shower did come just at the wrong moment for us as my final run on the completely dry track was compromised by traffic through Becketts, which left me in 18th when the shower began.
"So I had to go out right at the end of the session to try to improve regardless of the conditions. Unfortunately I couldn't get heat into my tyres through the first sector, which is always difficult, but even more so when the track was still slippery.
"I made a little bit of progress to jump Rosberg into 17th but not enough to make it into Q2.
"It's disappointing, but we know the car is not that competitive in the dry. It'll be a tough race but you can make progress here during the race, particularly if we have the expected wet conditions."
Button qualified right behind Barrichello, who also said the RA108 is not fast enough in dry conditions.
"It's unfortunate that we were not able to progress further in qualifying today and I'm afraid that reflects the true potential of the car on a dry track," he added.
"Out on the circuit, I thought we were through in 15th when it began to rain, but unfortunately it was just raining in the section of track that I was on and others were able to improve further round the lap, dropping me to 16th.
"I wasn't able to improve on my final lap at the end of the session as I had too much understeer in the car and the tyres were graining on the damp surface. We're expecting wet conditions for the race tomorrow which should make it exciting and open up possibilities if we can stay out of trouble."
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