Poor day for BAR in France

Jenson Button passed David Coulthard's McLaren at the first corner, but was in turn passed by the rocket-like Renault of Jarno Trulli. He looked set to pass the Italian during his final pitstop, but was slow away from the pits and fell behind the Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello on his out-lap.

"I'm very disappointed because we expected to do a lot better here and fifth is not good enough," said Button. "The strategy was working well for us but at the last pit stop the engine went into anti-stall mode and cost me the time advantage that could have put us on the podium.

"We lost a possible third place today and, with Taku's problem, two much-needed points finishes, having worked so hard to close the gap to Renault. They had a good result today so we really have to have solved these problems going into our home race."

Team-mate Takuma Sato suffered his fourth Honda engine failure of the season in France, prompting team chief David Richards to launch an investigation into the Japanese driver's recurring problems.

"It is a shame that I could not finish the race after our performance in Indy," said Sato. "The lap times were very close and everybody was competitive, so it was a tough race. I immediately felt a loss of power after the pitstop and we knew there was a problem down the main straight but there was nothing we could do.

"It was a different problem than before - not sudden but gradual. We have only a week to look into the problem before the team's home race at Silverstone which is one of the most important races on the calendar."

Richards said: "Taku's engine blew up yet again. We're going to have a big investigation into why it always happens with Taku and not on Jenson's car."