Button struggling to accept Honda's form

Honda's dismal season continued on Saturday, with both the main team's cars again slower than the Honda-backed Super Aguri of Japan's Takuma Sato, who qualified 14th.

Button, who endured similar fortune in the first race in Australia, finished down in 15th place.

"I'm obviously very frustrated. We know where we are at the moment and we're doing the best with what we have, but qualifying 15th is still difficult to accept," said Button.

"We made it through to Q2 but the car isn't good enough to get us through to the final session at the moment.

"It was unbelievable how much grip I lost towards the end of the second session. So we start from the second half of the grid and we'll have to see what the race brings, but this is always a tough race and tomorrow will be no exception."

The day was even worse for teammate Rubens Barrichello, who failed to make it past the first session. He will start from 19th position.

The Brazilian also had problems with his race car, meaning he had to switch to the spare for qualifying.

"There is very little I can say, I am so disappointed," said the Brazilian. "Given our current performance level, qualifying well was always going to be a struggle but to find myself where I am is so frustrating.

"Immediately before the session we had the problem with my race car so I had to switch to the spare car. That car wasn't set up for me, so in many ways it was like starting from the beginning again.

"At least by the end of free practice today my race car was well-balanced but obviously I wasn't able to benefit from the small improvement we had made with that car this morning which is very frustrating.

"Starting from the back of the grid tomorrow I can only see what opportunities arise in the race and that is the best we can expect."