Wrong Tyre Choice Costs BAR Dear

The BAR team said a wrong tyre choice at today's qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix was to blame for their poor showing.

BAR, chasing the Renault team for second place in the Constructors' Championship, endured a nightmare in the wet conditions as Jenson Button qualified 12th and Takuma Sato 15th. Renault drivers Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, will start from pole and third respectively.

"It's disappointing to be 12th on the grid as it has been a very long time since we have had a poor qualifying session," said Button. "We made the wrong tyre choice due to the standing water that was on the track and this cost us in our performance today.

"However, the car is strong and we are confident for the race, so with the mixed grid I think we can all look forward to an interesting Belgian Grand Prix tomorrow."

Japanese Sato was also disappointed but was looking forward to a strong race anyway.

"I'm disappointed with today's result," Sato said. "The rain stopped during the session and the lap and because we had extreme wet tyres on, they overheated quite quickly due to the conditions, so I had very poor grip by the end of the lap.

"The grid is quite mixed-up for the race tomorrow. We have good straight-line speed, so we have an opportunity to achieve a solid two-car points finish, continue to challenge Renault and maintain our third position in the Championship."