Button hoping to bounce back
Jenson Button concedes he faces a headache this morning if he is to be competitive in qualifying for tomorrow’s Canadian Grand Prix.
By his own high standards this season, Button suffered in practice yesterday as he was unable to find “a good balance” on his BAR, finishing just over a second adrift of team-mate Takuma Sato in the second hour-long run.
Button and BAR now have two further 45-minute sessions at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to rectify the problems they encountered, otherwise the 24-year-old could find himself staring at a lowly grid placing.
“I had some problems,” said a frustrated Button. “On braking I seemed to have a lot of problems with the rears locking, and on turning I seemed to have a lot of understeer, so I had no confidence going into the corners.
“I just didn’t get a good set up and in the hairpin on my quickest lap I had four cars in front of me which is very unusual, but even so the balance wasn’t good.
“It means I’ve a lot of work to do in practice today. We’ll look at both set ups [with Sato] and see what the difference is and try and find our way in.
“The speed is there in the car, which is great, we just have to find it. I’m confident we can rectify the situation ahead of qualifying. No problem.”
Button was left trailing in Sato’s wake as the Japanese star produced a time of one minute 14.086 seconds for the 4.361km circuit, just seven hundredths slower than the best time of the day set by the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher in the morning.
Button recognises it was “a good time” from Sato and bodes well for BAR providing he can also get on the pace, although he feels Ferrari will still prove too strong in the race.
“It [Sato’s time] was very promising and if it can be repeated [in qualifying] then we’ve a good chance of challenging Ferrari,” added Button.
“It shows we are strong here, but it’s a question of how strong because the Ferraris are going to be enormously fast as they have been all season.
“As usual their consistency is very good and they have to be the favourites to win here again, but if we pressure them then there’s a chance they will make a mistake, so we have to keep the pressure on.
“We have the pace in qualifying, it’s just whether we can fight the Ferraris in the race.”
Schumacher proved he is fallible for in the second run he clipped a wall upon exiting one of the track’s chicanes, and after a 20-minute respite in the garage, he went off line again upon his return and on approach to the same chicane.
The six-times world champion, who still ended up third quickest in the afternoon, said: “I had a kiss at the wall and my wheel didn’t take it so well.
“I just got a bit off line, with the result that I ran out of room to get through the corner. Fortunately it did not cause too much damage.
“But you drive and try to find the right limit and, especially here at this track, if you come off the line only a slight bit it is very slippery and sometimes you end up in the wall.
“Otherwise, we have done all our ’homework’ and I am happy with the results we have seen so far.”
