Button laps up home crowd

Test driver Anthony Davidson was the fastest of the BAR trio in the first session setting the fifth quickest time while Button and team-mate Takuma Sato were 10th and 13th respectively).

Button rose to the challenge in the second session to knock three tenths off Davidson's time, the fifth quickest overall, while the test driver hit trouble with his gearbox after just 14 laps.

"This isn't the way I wanted to start the team's home race weekend. I had a good morning and was hoping to continue that progress into this afternoon but unfortunately we had a gearbox failure after just 14 laps. Our long-run performance seems to be very good but it's a shame that I was unable to complete our tyre evaluation."

Work was therefore left to Button and Sato who both hoped for a better performance after positive tests at Silverstone last month.

"We completed most of our tyre work today but it's a shame about Anthony's problem," said Button. "I think we know the direction we're heading in, we just have a lot more work to do to optimise the car in time for qualifying. The support from the crowd has been fantastic already and we just have to keep focused and do everything we can to build on today's performance and get stronger as we head into the race."

Team-mate Sato added: "We hoped we would be stronger here today after the positive tests we had earlier in the season. The car isn't performing as well as we'd hoped and we have a lot more work to do to be more competitive for qualifying and the race, as we are looking for a podium finish here. We didn't complete the full tyre evaluation but hopefully there is enough data between the three of us to confirm our choice for tomorrow."