Button Pleased as BAR Bounce Back

Jenson Button was as blunt and direct as his more famous teammate Jacques Villeneuve on Friday when asked what he thought of the new-style Formula One qualifying show.

"The show? I don't know. I can't say I watched it like that. To be honest, I don't really care. I'm just here to do my best and get a good time and a good place on the grid. The rest of it is nothing to do with me."

Like his senior teammate from Canada who won the world drivers' championship in 1997, Button is this year fighting to impress in a new-look BAR-Honda team that, on Friday, bounced back from a near-disastrous morning to record the third and fifth best times.

"That was a surprise for all of us," said Villeneuve. "After the morning, I thought we were in trouble. We did hardly any running at all. It was a tough start.

"So to get third is a big shock. We did hardly any running this morning because we both suffered engine failures. I didn't know what to expect and honestly I thought I'd end up right down the back of the grid."

Villeneuve was forced to run in his spare car and like Button praised the team for the excellent job they did in preparing the cars for the afternoon after all the problems in the morning.

"It was great today," said Button. "I am delighted. The only strange thing to me today is that Michael Schumacher did not seem to do his normal times. I think everyone else ran as hard as they could so it was like a proper qualifying session.

"It was the first time I've been out in this car in low fuel spec so it was great to get that kind of result. It felt good all the way."