Title Hopes are Over, Says Button

"You've got to say that our chance of winning the Championship is pretty much gone," the Briton told reporters at the Spanish Grand Prix which he now misses.

"To come back from that is pretty much impossible, especially with Renault being so strong in the first few races and Ferrari are going to be strong for the rest of the year."

Button was stripped of his third place at the San Marino Grand Prix as part of BAR's punishment for breaking the rules on weight and fuel.

The team, part owned by Honda and runners-up to Ferrari in 2004, will now be absent until the seventh race of the season without a point to their credit.

Renault have won the first four rounds with Spaniard Fernando Alonso triumphant in the last three.

Button said he felt before the sanction that he still had a chance of the title.

"This is the first moment I've really thought there's really no chance we can challenge for the Championship but the aim this year was to win races anyway and we've just got to stick to that," he said.

The Briton said he was particularly disappointed not to be racing in Monaco, the next race after Spain.

"This would have been a great race for us but for me I think Monaco was the one that I'm most disappointed about because I think that could have been a race we could have shocked a lot of people at," he said.

"We would have been staggeringly quick.

"It's a circuit that I love. We did well there last year getting on the podium and I really think we could have gone one step higher this year and I don't think it would have been too hard either."