BAR Lament Lost Opportunity

The BAR team rued a lost opportunity to score points at today's Spanish Grand Prix following a strong showing in yesterday's qualifying.

"It's no use hiding my disappointment at what had all the makings of an excellent weekend," said team boss David Richards. "The qualifying positions and the strategy for both cars were good, but an electrical fire on Jacques' car and Jenson's incident with Coulthard put paid to all the best-laid plans.

"At least we can feel confident in our ability to compete at the front and put this race behind us as we look forward to Austria in two weeks' time."

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve retired from the race after only 13 laps, while Briton Jenson Button finished down in ninth position after starting from fifth place. Button was running strongly in the points until he clashed with McLaren's David Coulthard at the end of the straight, damaging his car.

"Considering how bad the race was for me I'm lucky to end up even close to the points," he said. "After the first pit stop I came up behind David Coulthard and he seemed to be struggling a little bit. I got alongside him on the inside in the first corner and he just turned in, so that destroyed my race really.

"I had to come into the pits with a damaged front wing and a puncture to the left front tyre. Because of that there was a problem getting the jack under the car and then getting the new tyre on again.

"Then we had a gearshift problem towards the end of the race and I lost third gear three laps from the end and fourth for the last two laps. Not the best of races and in the end I was lucky to make it to the finish."