Button Confident of Strong Weekend

BAR Jenson Button expects another strong weekend for the Honda-powered team after a promising start in today's practice for the European Grand Prix.

Briton Button, who celebrated his fourth podium of the year when he finished second in last Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix, was second fastest for the Brackley-based outfit in the afternoon session.

Button's time, however, was still slower than the morning's fastest lap of 1:29.447 set by BAR's British test and reserve driver Anthony Davidson.

"We've had a good first day today and have obtained a lot of information from all three cars," said Button. "The lack of grip has been a problem throughout the day though. We struggled this morning and were expecting the grip level to improve this afternoon, but it didn't. Probably because the temperature is quite cool and it's a little windy.

"Anthony has done some good work on the longer runs but this is something we still need to improve on. It's only Friday and it's difficult to see how much of today's results is down to teams improving or their fuel loads.

"Generally, we have some work to do but I think we're going to be strong here. After Monaco, it will also be good to race at a track where it's possible to overtake."

Button's teammate Takuma Sato was down in 10th position after complaining of balance problems with his car.

"We struggled a little to achieve the right balance today so we need to work on that for tomorrow," said Sato. "But we do not foresee any problems and will be spending a lot of time looking at tyre data from today's runs with all three cars.

"I hope that the track will improve tomorrow because we were struggling for grip throughout the day today. Overall I'm feeling quite positive about the weekend ahead."