Button Disappointed to Miss Out on Top Three

British driver Jenson Button said he was disappointed after missing out on a top three position in today's qualifying for the French Grand Prix.

BAR driver Button, looking to score his seventh podium of the season at Magny-Cours, qualified in fourth place with his Honda-powered car.

The Briton was outqualified by Renault's Fernando Alonso, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, and David Coulthard, who secured his best qualifying performance of the season with the new McLaren.

"It was a reasonably good lap but I'm disappointed that we are outside the top three," said Button. "I was struggling with oversteer prior to pre-qualifying so we made a change to the car. That didn't have the right effect during the first run so we changed again for qualifying and the balance was a lot better.

"Going into the race it's not 100% perfect but we are consistent and the tyres are working well, so I think we will be strong here. It was interesting to see that McLaren were so quick and with Renault up there I think everyone can look forward to an interesting race.

"For our part, we need both cars to finish and to score some good points if we are to continue taking the fight to Renault."

Japanese Takuma Sato wound up seventh quickest in what was one of the closest qualifying sessions of the year.

"We are a little disappointed not to have been slightly further up the grid but the gap between pole and myself is only 0.5 seconds, so it was very close," said Sato. "I lost a bit of time on my lap but the team were able to record similar times with Jenson and myself.

"The conditions were very similar to this morning and we were generally strong with reasonable grip. I hope to have a strong race tomorrow; it should certainly be an exciting one."