BAR Duo Hoping for More Speed

With both drivers hoping to end BAR's points drought this weekend, the result was not what the team had hoped for - especially after Button's surprise pole position in the Canadian Grand Prix.

Button claimed that BAR007 was lacking grip around the Indianapolis circuit although he was not sure how much progress the team would be able to make before Saturday.

"The good thing is we did our comparisons for the tyres and did our normal programme for a Friday," he said. "The pace isn't very good. We're struggling for grip a little bit.

"We have a busy night ahead of us. We know where some of it is coming from. We just need to hope we can get the problems sorted out and get a bit more back on the pace, and I think we can."

Sato, who finished on the podium for the first time in his career at Indianapolis last year, added: "It's great to be back at Indy, as we have great memories of last year. Today wasn't perfect for us.

"We need to do a lot of work for the weekend. It's only the first day, and we did complete the program for both cars and the tire comparison. I'm relatively happy, but we need to work on the speed."

Button believed that some focus needed to diverted towards the tyre issue on Friday night following Ralf Schumacher's crash in the second practice session.

"I'm sure there will be a lot of discussion with both manufacturers and all the teams (about tyre selection). We don't want that to happen again."