Mixed fortunes for Honda duo

The Brazilian will start his home race from the 11th spot on the grid, having done better this season only at Monaco. The Briton, in contrast, qualified 16th - not his worst result of the year, but certainly the worst he's done compared to his teammate.

Despite being pleased with his performance, Barrichello was slightly unhappy with not making the top ten and blamed a lack of grip at the rear.

"I am very pleased to have had a stronger weekend so far here at my home race but at the same time a little disappointed that we could not make it through to the final qualifying session today," he said.

"The car felt very good this morning but this afternoon the rear was moving around a little too much so we lost a bit of time there. We got every last bit of performance out of the car today and I think we can have a good race from 11th."

Button expects to have a difficult time in tomorrow's race after having suffered from a lack of grip today.

"Not a great qualifying session for me today which reflects that we have been off the pace pretty much all weekend," he commented. "The car has a consistent lack of grip and unfortunately we haven't been able to improve the set-up to overcome this.

"It will be a tough race from 16th so we will just have to see what opportunities the race presents."