Button Surprised by Qualifying Pace

Briton Jenson Button said he was surprised that he wound up third quickest in Thursday's qualifying session for the Monaco Grand Prix.

The BAR-Honda driver, who is a resident in the principality, qualified almost six-tenths of a second behind Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher and three-tenths down on second-placed Rubens Barrichello.

The 23-year-old said third was a pleasant surprise because he had experienced handling difficulties with his car during the hour-long practice session.

"I didn't expect to be that high," was Button's verdict afterwards. "After this morning the car didn't feel very stable but we worked with it and it seems to be pretty good now. You don't know what fuel people are going to run on Saturday but at least we know now that we are competitive and we can look at our strategy and look at more possibilities.

"The good thing was today wasn't perfect because we were getting graining on the tyres at the end of the lap."

Button said that he had not been flat-out around the narrow barrier-lined streets of Monte Carlo and admitted the fear of damaging his BAR car had forced him to take things easy during the qualifying lap.

"Qualifying is always pretty much flat out but here you have got to have a little bit in reserve because otherwise you make a mistake and you will hit the wall," added Button, who was almost 1.5 seconds quicker than teammate Jacques Villeneuve.

"I was backing off a little bit, probably 99 percent instead of 100."