Button still aiming for victory

Button's team-mate Takuma Sato proved the pace of the 006 chassis with a blinding first sector on his qualifying lap. He could even have set pole position before a mistake under braking for the chicane put him back to seventh.

"It feels great to be starting the Monaco Grand Prix from the front row," said Button afterwards. "This is a race everyone wants to do well in and to be in with the best chance of winning, or even on the podium, you have to be on the front row - preferably with the competition behind you!

"That might be the case with Michael [Schumacher], but I am sandwiched between the Renaults, and as we've seen here today, they are looking solid at the moment. We expected to be strong here, but I was struggling a little with set-up this morning. We were able to address this for the start of qualifying and the car felt much better, although I was still unable to get the best out of sector two. I'm pretty happy with everything though.

"I love it here and I think we can do a good job tomorrow."

Sato was gutted. "It's a great shame because I was on a really good lap until I had a moment in sector two coming off the kerb," Sato said. "I wasn't able to pick up grip straight away so I locked up into the chicane after the tunnel. Everything locked up - the front and the rears and I lost a lot of time.

"This unsettled me in sector three also. I'm not very happy because I could have been closer to the front row today, but I have to be positive and rely on what I think will be a strong strategy for tomorrow's race."