Canadian GP - Honda - RaceJenson Button ended today's Canadian Grand Prix just outside the points after crossing the line in ninth position.
It was a long and frustrating race for Button, who battled with low grip and understeer from start to finish. He put up a
valiant fight to try to get the car home in the points, but he was unable to sustain a competitive pace and eventually lost eighth position in the closing stages to David Coulthard.
Team-mate
Rubens Barrichello's race was brought to a premature conclusion on lap 12 when he felt the engine of his RA106 suddenly tighten and lose power. Investigations by the team into the cause of the problem continue.
Jenson Button"It's been a very frustrating day for me. I had no grip with either the front or rear tyres, as well as understeer and a lack of traction. The difficulty with this circuit is that there is just so much rubber going down which leaves marbles on every corner. If you make a slight mistake or lock-up, you go off-line and then you lose a few seconds trying to get the tyres back up to temperature. The car was difficult to drive all day and it's disappointing to finish outside of the points, which was our aim.
We have to get through Indianapolis now and do the best we can with the car we have, then we'll be testing a new package ready for France next month."
Rubens Barrichello"A disappointing way to end my race. The engine felt quite tight from the beginning of the race then after my 11th lap, you could see I was losing a lot of places as everyone was able to overtake me on the straights as I just started to lose power. The team are making a real effort to find more reliability and horsepower with the engine so we'll just have to analyse this problem, see what the cause was and hopefully resolve it before the next race in Indianapolis."
Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director
"It is fair to say that this was a very disappointing day for us. Rubens' engine tightened which led to his retirement and we are still investigating the cause of the problem. Jenson did well at the beginning but struggled with his car throughout the race, eventually dropping back to ninth."
Source Honda
