Button reaction to Hungary

Jenson Button said his Brawn team must find an urgent solution to its lack of pace after he struggled to seventh in the Hungarian Grand Prix.


After two difficult races in cool conditions in Britain and Germany, the championship leader had hoped that returning to the warmer weather of Hungary would see Brawn back up front.


But instead he had his worst result of the season so far, qualifying eighth and finishing seventh.


He now believes Brawn has managed to lose pace rather than other teams developing faster.




"I don't know what it is, I don't think we can blame the weather," Button told television reporters in Hungary.


"We've had two different updates, but they shouldn't unbalance the car.


"You can say that the other teams have improved their cars for sure - the Red Bulls are quicker, McLaren and Ferrari have stepped up their games, and so has the Williams.


"But our car is not what it was to drive a few races ago.


"It's not that we've stayed the same and everyone's overtaken us.


"Our car is not driving as it has done since the start of the season.


"There's obviously and issue and hopefully we can solve it."


Button added that the result came as a particular disappointment as he had been confident of a good result after showing good pace on heavy fuel in practice.


"Friday was good on the option tyre - everyone else was struggling with rear graining and we had a very good rear end," he said.


"Today after four laps my tyres were destroyed.


"I had rear graining and couldn't keep up with cars in front."




Meanwhile, team-mate and title rival Rubens Barrichello was left to rue a disastrous start after he finished on the tails of Jarno Trulli and Kazuki Nakajima outside the points in 10th.




The Brazilian started the race on a heavy fuel load after a disintegrating damper caused him to slump to 13th on the grid, but contact at the second corner dropped him to 18th – a setback that the veteran believes cost him a points finish.




"There was some good action out there but my race was really compromised from the start which is a shame as the potential was definitely there for a points finish," Barrichello said after falling 26 points adrift of Button in the title fight.




"I had some contact from another car when I turned into the second corner which dropped me to the back of the field.




"It was always going to be difficult to make progress from there but there were flashes of pace, particularly during the last stint when I was able to close up to the cars ahead."




And after a difficult weekend in which the championship-leading has surprisingly lack outright pace and he saw his close friend Felipe Massa injured and put in intensive care in hospital, Barrichello admits it had been a tough few days.




"It's been a very difficult weekend and one to forget really," he added.




"We know that we have a lot of hard work ahead of us to find out what is affecting our performance."