Engine blow tops off disastrous race for Button.

On a high following his dominant pole position, Jenson Button comes away from the Australian Grand Prix pointless following a truly disastrous race that was defined by a lack of grip and ended by a dramatic engine blow just feet from the finish line.

Having scrambled to the first corner just ahead of a frisky Fernando Alonso and then aggressively forcing him wide at turn three, Button managed to keep the Renault behind him briefly until the first safety car period, when the lack of grip from the inevitable cooling of the tyres, coupled with the less than ideal temperatures, caught him out coming out of the final corner, leaving him a sitting duck to Alonso into the first corner.

The Brit's race did not get much better from there on when Kimi Raikkonen pulled off an almost identical manoeuvre after another safety car, with Juan Pablo Montoya and Nick Heidfeld also finding their way past during the pit stops.

However, Button's dramatic race was not quite over, when, in fifth place and under pressure from Giancarlo Fisichella, his Honda engine let go coming around the final corner and he was controversially told to stop just feet from the finish line to avoid receiving a ten place grid penalty at Imola, at the expense of a potential three points.

A visibly angry Button quickly vaulted the pit wall and marched into his garage to rue a day that promised so much and delivered little. However, he eventually put a positive spin on his race, claiming the car was strong - but only once the tyres had warmed up.

"It's disappointing to end the weekend as we did today after starting the race in pole position," Button said. "The way the race panned out with the three safety cars left me struggling for grip after each restart and I lost so much time and so many places.

"I could feel that something was wrong with the engine in turn 13 and it was a difficult way to end the race after such a long hard battle. The car is strong when we have tyre temperature, but when we don't we have massive grip problems."

Indeed, Button's pace on cooler tyres has alarmed the team, who will now try to rectify the problem ahead of the San Marino Grand Prix.

"We'll be studying the data to work out the cause of Jenson's engine problem," Shuhei Nakamoto, Honda's engineering director, said. "We're sorry his efforts did not bring him any points today. He drove a strong race but struggled for grip after the safety car periods. We have lots to work on in testing to get where we need to be."