Button Relying on Race Strategy

BAR-Honda driver Jenson Button has lowered his sights from Ferrari and is focussed on beating Renault in the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday to close in on their World Championship runners-up spot.

Briton Button is currently third in the Drivers' Championship but his team are behind Renault in the constructors' because they have regularly failed to pick up points from both cars this season.

The British team will start from fifth and sixth, with Takuma Sato ahead of Button and Button said: "It's very close. It's the same for everyone, if we'd lost or gained a 10th it would have been a big difference in position.

"Hopefully we have a better strategy than most. I think we can have a good race. I'm sure we'd both, Taku and me, like to be further up the grid but we can still do something from the third row and I am confident we can challenge Renault."

Spaniard Fernando Alonso will start from the second row of the grid in his Renault alongside World Champion Michael Schumacher while Rubens Barrichello and Juan Pablo Montoya will start from the front.

Italian Jarno Trulli qualified only ninth in the second Renault and Button is pleased the fast-starting blue and yellow cars will not be around him for the start of the race.

"We haven't got the Renaults up behind us to jump us at the start, which is nice," he said. "We have Alonso up front who will have a good start and Trulli behind us so our aim is to get more points than them in this race.

"We've got to still aim for that and I think we can do that. Rubens seemed very quick in qualifying. He'll be quick. I am a little bit disappointed but even so we can still do something from sixth.

"It's very difficult to overtake here even though there are long straights and slow corners which you would think would make it easier. The good thing is we are very reliable and I'm sure the team can do a good job on the stops."