BAR Duo Looking for More Speed

Although Sato set the seventh best time in the morning session, he and Button were left languishing in 17th and 18th positions on the timesheets in second practice after concentrating on long-run tyre evaluation.

Sato said: "Today went smoothly and we completed all of our planned programme. The track conditions weren't much different from testing here last week and the car balance is good. 

"We concentrated on tyre evaluation this afternoon rather than outright performance, but it seems that we will still have some work to do before tomorrow to move further up the field in terms of pace. Generally we have made a good start and we look forward to improving through the rest of the weekend."

Button added: "We did a lot of our groundwork in testing here last week so our focus today was working through our usual Friday programme, which ran according to plan.

"We clearly still have some work ahead of us tonight and tomorrow morning to see how we can improve our pace, so we will see what free practice in the morning brings before making any predictions."

Sporting director Gil de Ferran hoped that the team would be able to come up with a plan of attack overnight to help them recover their form.

"Although it is difficult to figure out how fast the other teams are on Fridays, the timesheets clearly indicate that our lap times need improving," he said. "Both drivers are quite unhappy with the handling of their cars so we will collect our thoughts overnight and hopefully come up with a plan to improve tomorrow."