Button plays down practice showing

The Briton and teammate Rubens Barrichello were left near the bottom of the timesheets on a difficult day for the Japanese manufacturer.

But despite the showing, Button felt that he had ended the day starting to get to grips with his RA108 and feels that he can challenge in the midfield at Magny-Cours.

"It's been a funny morning really," said the Briton. "I've been struggling with a lot of things- from the brakes, through to the actual balance of the car. We changed a lot of things over lunch and we've made a lot of steps. I'm actually a lot happier with the car now. I feel confident with it, especially in the high-speed chicanes.

"Our long runs on old tyres seem to be reasonably good. At the end I wasn't able to get a lap in on the softer tyres because there were a lot of cars on the circuit and (Felipe) Massa went off. But we've made a lot of progress since this morning and I'm feeling a lot happier with the car."

He added: "It's tough to overtake here and there's a lot of work still to do. We're not quick enough but I'm expecting us to get a lot closer to the top 10. There's still a lot of areas with the car that we need to work on."

Button said he was not surprised by Honda Racing have a tough time in France, with their car clearly not best suited to the characteristics and kerbs at Magny-Cours.

"There are some areas of the car we can't change, but there are lots of things we can change and we're improving it," he explained. "You need a car here that's efficient - that's good in high speed and changes direction. That's what we need to work on. The last chicane is just painful for us at the moment."