Button Targets Another Podium

Briton Jenson Button says he is targeting another podium finish at Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix if his BAR team can stay competitive this weekend.

Button clinched his maiden Formula One podium two weeks ago in Malaysia after finishing in third place following 68 starts.

In today's opening practice session Button was seventh quickest and second fastest of the three BAR drivers on track, with British tester Anthony Davidson setting an impressive third best time.

"The session was encouraging and I am relatively happy with the performance of the car," said Button at the end of the day. "It was tough to do any testing in the sessions and work on set-up because the circuit kept changing and improving every lap.

"It will be difficult to know which tyres to choose but we are lucky that we run three cars and Anthony did a lot of laps, so we will go through all the data tonight and we should have more information about what will work best.

"I think that it will be pretty close competition this weekend, similar to Malaysia. If we are strong for the rest of the weekend then we will be fighting for a podium position, and definitely in the points. It's going to be very exciting."

Button's teammate Takuma Sato, still to score a point this season, finished down in 12th place.

"It has been a very good start for us considering this is a brand new circuit," said Sato. "We haven't experienced any major problems so have been able to do some good work with the tyres and set-up.

"It was a shame that I lost six or seven tenths on what would have been my fastest lap of the day when I picked up debris from Alonso's Renault, so there is a lot more to come from me and the car here. Generally I'm pleased so far."