Fisichella Pleased as Button Struggles

Benetton drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Jenson Button endured different fortunes in today's qualifying at the Nurburgring circuit, with the Italian being more than a second faster than the Briton.

Fisichella, who after Saturday's session has outqualified his teammate eight times out of nine races, was again capable of getting the best out of the Renault-powered B201 to place himself in a decent 15th place on the grid for tomorrow's European Grand Prix and he was pleased with the result.

"I am very happy with the result we achieved today working as a team, driver and engineers," said Fisichella. "We tried a few different set-ups and I'm pleased with the way things worked out.

"The chassis balance is good, but we could just do with a bit more rear downforce - and the power increase we are expecting soon, would have been welcome today."

Button, on the other hand, was again closer to the bottom of the timesheets, setting the 20th fastest time only ahead of the Minardis, the young Brit being one of the many drivers complaining about the lack of grip at the German circuit

"This morning the car didn't feel too bad," said Button. "There were a few things we had to change - and we thought we had done it, but when qualifying came around we had a bit too much understeer and that stopped me getting a good time.

"The grip level at the track is quite low, but that's the same for every driver. Unfortunately, this has been one of those days when the car got worse rather than better."