Villeneuve: BAR Not as Competitive as in Melbourne

Jacques Villeneuve says his Honda-powered BAR will not be as competitive in Malaysia as it was at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago.

Canadian Villeneuve was the under-performer of the day in today's qualifying after losing the back end of his BAR under braking and finishing up 15th fastest. To add to his discomfort, Briton Jenson Button - the teammate he branded "weak" on Thursday - was ninth fastest.

After putting on an impressive performance in qualifying in Australia, the Canadian, who admitted to a mistake on his flying lap, is not expecting to be able to repeat the feat at Sepang this weekend.

"The differential wasn't working properly this morning so we weren't really sure what the car balance was at the end of practice," said Villeneuve. "We changed the car set-up and brakes for qualy so it was a little bit of an unknown.

"The car itself was quite quick, not as competitive as Melbourne though. I was trying hard and made a mistake in the last two corners and paid the price by having a slow lap."

Briton Button struggled with too much understeer in this morning's practice, only to suffer from oversteer in qualifying. The BAR driver, however, remained positive ahead of tomorrow's decisive session.

"Maybe it's the circuit but it was quite snappy everywhere under braking," said Button. "Considering the way the car was, I don't think the lap was too bad really. There's a lot to be gained which is positive and I'm sure we'll see an improvement tomorrow."