Button Criticises Villeneuve over Pitstop Incident

Jenson Button's war-of-words with Jacques Villeneuve continued today after the Briton was critical of his new teammate's antics in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Both drivers had been set for points finishes early in the race after switching onto dry tyres, but a pitstop howler cost Button any hope as he was forced to sit behind Villeneuve until the Canadian's stop was completed.

Button, one place behind Villeneuve at the time, had been due to stop that lap but Villeneuve came in after radio problems had caused him to miss his pitstop the previous lap.

Button claimed the incident had been an embarrassment to the whole BAR outfit.

"I'm very disappointed," Button said. "My teammate came in on the wrong lap which is disappointing for the first pitstops and it's quite embarrassing really for the whole team. It was my lap to come in, he was supposed to come in the lap before but for some reason he didn't, and it is very disappointing. I just hope it doesn't happen again."

The pitlane fiasco did nothing to mend bridges between Button and Villeneuve with the Briton stating "not really" when asked if their relationship had improved.

Button had endured a rollercoaster debut for Brackley-based BAR after problems hampered his progress on Friday morning, only to impress in the two qualifying sessions. And he claimed the efforts of the weekend deserved points.

"It has been very up and down," he admitted. "Friday morning was difficult, we didn't do many laps, but in qualifying the car has been working well. It is disappointing to finish where we did because the car was running very well, we were very quick in the race."