BAR: not quite there, yet...

"We've had a constructive day with both drivers getting their full quota of track time," said team principal David Richards. "More importantly the improvements that Honda and ourselves have made to the car have translated into real performance on the track. This has given us renewed momentum and I am confident that, with more fine-tuning, we will have a competitive weekend."

Button was bemused after his run, finding more grip after a little rain had fallen on the track. "The run wasn't too bad. It started to drizzle with rain a little, which strangely gave the circuit more grip," he said.

"It wasn't a perfect lap and I don't think I got the best out of it, but we have definitely made a step forward with the car from the last race. The new bodywork has made quite a big difference but we are further behind than we wanted to be, so we have just got to hope that we can make progress for tomorrow."

Team-mate Villeneuve used different tyres to the young Brit, but found them not to be to his liking. The French Canadian will use the same rubber as Button tomorrow in an effort to close today's 0.5s gap.

"The car was good for the first half of the lap but by the last two corners the front tyres were gone," he said. "It didn't seem slippery out there but it was a little bit difficult as you get to Turn One and don't know how much grip there is.

"Today was the day to try things on the car - Jenson took a different tyre and it looks like that choice is better, so I will go with that choice tomorrow. We have made improvements to the car for this race and we have certainly taken a step forward. We already know what we have to do tomorrow to improve the set-up."