Benetton Struggle at the Bottom

The Benetton team struggled to improve on recent performances in Friday's practice sessions for the British Grand Prix, with Giancarlo Fisichella forced to change his engine during the hour-long session.

Fisichella completed 26 laps and finished 21st, after engine problems meant an older-spec replacement had to be used in the Italian driver's car.

"It has been a bad day," said Fisichella, "We had an engine problem in the first session and in the second the car's balance wasn't great. We did a lot of work but we didn't find the level of improvement I was hoping for. The rain at the end did not help and I can only hope that things go better tomorrow."

Fisichella's teammate Jenson Button ended 19th, insisting that the positions do not show the whole story and he was pleased with the way the session went. The 21-year old British driver felt good about the run, which went without any hitches, and had his confidence boosted going into qualifying on Saturday.

"Things weren't too bad this morning," said Button. "We didn't run any new tyres, but the chassis balance was quite good, even though overall grip levels were quite low. We put new tyres on after lunch and it made more of a difference than I had expected, but the balance was still good.

"Our position might not look terribly good on paper, but realistically I think we are in better shape and that should show tomorrow. On another positive note, the practice starts I did felt pretty good, too - especially as I was running on dry tyres in the wet."