BAR Baffled by Lack of Speed

BAR were returning to racing action after missing the Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix due to a ban imposed by the FIA.

After qualifying, Button was confident he would be fighting for the points in today's race.

The reality, however, was very different, and the Briton struggled for pace and could only finish in a disappointing 10th position.

"We thought that we would be reasonably strong here, so today's race has taken us by surprise," said Button. "We had a lot of oversteer in the car but also in turn-in we had huge amounts of understeer, so I don't understand what was going on really.

"I struggled a lot, but at least we made enough progress to move a bit further up the grid for Canada.  We have a few new aero parts coming for the next race so that will help us there I'm sure.

"We have a lot of work to do in testing next week and hopefully we will be able to make a bit more of an impact on the grid in Montreal."

Sporting director Gil de Ferran was also surprised by BAR's poor showing, which he failed to find an explanation for.

"Unfortunately this has been a disappointing day for us as our speed in testing clearly has not translated into good race pace this Sunday," said de Ferran. "Basically, our car just wasn't fast enough.

"At this stage we do not fully understand why, but we will investigate this during tests at Monza and Silverstone this week.  We clearly need to find a solution before we leave for the races in North America."