Button to face frustrating race?

Team technical director Mike Gascoyne was disappointed with the positions after Trulli has been quickest in free practice on Thursday and again on Saturday morning.

"Jarno had a lot of traffic and just didn't seem to be able to take advantage as the circuit got quicker and quicker," Gascoyne said. "I was hoping that we would have got a car on the first couple of rows, where we would have been able to worry a few people at the start with our launch control. We'll just have to see what we can do, but row four is a bit too far back here."

Gascoyne confirmed that Jenson Button had qualified in the spare Renault chassis after his Thursday accident at Mirabeau proved to have damaged his race tub around a front suspension pick-up point. "We could probably have fixed it," Gascoyne said, "but elected to use the spare to be on the safe side."

Button said: "The problem for me is that I am lining up right behind my team-mate, so given the nature of this place, I might not be overtaking too many people..."

Gascoyne said that the situation is doubly frustrating because he anticipates more performance drop-of from Bridgestone-shod cars than from the Renault's Michelins.