Honda drivers lament lack of speed

Button had appeared set for a fifth placed finish before an engine failure on lap 29, handing that position to Barrichello, who held it to the chequered flag despite intense pressure from cars behind him.

But despite scoring points, both men said that the team's performance was not good enough and that they hoped things would improve in time for next weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.

"A disappointing end to a fairly tough weekend really," said Button about his race exit. "I got a strong start and had a good tussle with Raikkonen through turns 1, 2 and 3 before I got ahead of him to take fourth.

"The car was inconsistent throughout the race.  Some of it was down to the wind - it was quite gusty out there today - but the balance wasn't there and it was changing corner to corner.

"In my second stint it was starting to come good as the fuel came down and I would have been happy to finish fifth with a car I wasn't happy with and get four points.  Instead, I had a big loss of power, the engine tightened and I lost drive so had to pull over. Let's hope for better things in Spain."

Barrichello added: "Fifth is not what we were hoping for but at the end of the day we didn't have the pace.  I was struggling with the balance of the car and it was just case of surviving and doing the best we could.

"Because of that I'm pleased that we at least have some points but we have to hope for better things for Barcelona."

Honda are confident that they will find out the cause of Button's engine failure in time for the Circuit de Catalunya next week.

"We will have to get to the bottom of the engine failure on Jenson's car as soon as we can - definitely in time for Barcelona," said Shuhei Nakamoto, Honda's engineering director.