Barrichello laments lack of speed

The Japanese squad scored their first points of the season in the last race in Spain thanks to a sixth place from Jenson Button, and the team said they expected the Istanbul circuit to suit their car better.

But both Barrichello and Button failed to get into the top ten in today's qualifying, with the Brazilian admitting they were struggling with their balance.

"It was a good effort from everyone today, however unfortunately we are not as fast as we thought we might be here in Turkey," said Barrichello, 12th fastest. "It is a balance problem, rather than the tyres or grip levels, and I believe we achieved the best that we could today.

"I could not get the car to perform well over the whole lap. The first and second sector were good, but the third sector was not working for us. Realistically this is where the car is at the moment. We need another step to make us a regular qualifier into Q3."

Button said he was having problems with his tyres, and the Briton reckons it will not be easy to score points from 13th place.

"I have to be reasonably pleased with 13th as we were struggling to get the tyres working in qualifying today," he said. "Q1 was not too bad and we completed both runs on the prime tyre.

"We switched to the option for my first run in Q2 as everyone seemed to be going quicker on that tyre but for some reason the option didn't work for me and I had no grip.

"So we went back to the prime which should be about three-tenths slower around here so 13th is not too bad. It's annoying that we can't get the option to work but our prime tyre pace is very good, particularly over longer runs.

"It's a long way forward to get points from here but this is a tough circuit on engines so we'll see what happens. I've always had fun racing here as it's a great place to overtake so I'm looking forward to the race."