Fry confirms Button tyre problem, park request.

Cold front tyres were the main reason for Jenson Button's below par performance in the Australian Grand Prix, and meant that the Honda driver struggled to get up to speed after safety car interventions.

The team was aware of the temperature issue during winter testing but, in common with rivals, found it more of a problem in Melbourne than previously thought. On top of that, the two Hondas suffered more than most Michelin runners, and the tyres never got into their operating window, leaving the drivers struggling for grip. BMW also suffered badly, but Renault and McLaren appeared to be happier with their tyre performance.

"The problem we ran into, which was compounded by the safety car, was that Jenson simply couldn't get any heat into the tyres," confirmed Honda team boss Nick Fry, "The driver can get heat into the back tyres by just spinning the wheels, so he can solve that problem, but the front end of the car is much more difficult.

"He couldn't get any heat into the front end of the car, and the result of that was he couldn't get onto the straight when the safety car pulled off properly, and people either overtook him onto the straight, or into the first turn. I don't know how many safety cars there were ?EUR" I lost count ?EUR" but, every time, he lost either one or two places. He did the best he could, but it's clearly an issue that we need to overcome."

Button was passed for the lead at the first restart by Fernando Alonso, after he lost momentum through the last two corners of the lap.

"Alonso came out of the straight much better, and managed to get a drag past Jenson into the first corner," Fry continued, "Jenson was locking wheels, and we noticed that even on the warm-up lap. Obviously, we were well prepared for Raikkonen the second time round, but he still couldn't prevent the same happening again.

"Obviously, we're really disappointed with our performance ?EUR" because it looked good. It's great that we can make the car go in qualifying, but obviously we need to make it go equally quick in the race, and certainly, today, we couldn't do that. We were using a slightly different tyre from the other Michelin runners, and we need to understand if that was partly the cause. We appear to be able to go quick from time to time, but need to understand what happened today."

The spectacular end to Button's race, with a last corner engine failure, also caused the team to make a controversial snap decision. Rather than coast across the line in sixth place after losing out to Giancarlo Fisichella, Jenson was told to park the crippled car to ensure that he was classified as a retirement. Had he crossed the line, he would have had to take a ten-place penalty for the resulting engine change before Imola.

However, it remains to be seen whether it was worth throwing away three points to gain a better grid position for the next race - or whether the governing body will take a dim view of Honda's actions.

"I think the guys did a reasonably good job, just making quick decisions," Fry commented, "It's very tough and decisions have to be made very quickly, based on sometimes quite limited information. They do a good job and, on a day like today, it may look like schoolboy errors at home but, on the pit-wall, it's slightly different."

Fry said that he was at least encouraged by Rubens Barrichello's drive into the points after the Brazilian failed to progress through the first part of qualifying and started the race from 16th on the grid.

"He obviously had a lot of fuel on board, as he was fuelled to lap 32," the team boss revealed, "That handicapped him in the first part of the race, but he got some points. I don't think anyone's proud of today's race, but we nearly got both cars home, and Rubens got points where he hadn't before."

The Brazilian could be heard complaining about his brakes, a constant source of problems since his arrival from Ferrari over the winter.

"We've got a number of things coming forward for Imola, which will help us a bit, but we really need to do a thorough review of what went on today and understand all the whys and wherefores," Fry concluded, "Last year was obviously a good performance on the track [at Imola], and Jenson enjoys it there...."