Monaco GP: BAR race notes

A challenging weekend for Lucky Strike B*A*R Honda ended with further disappointment in today's Monaco Grand Prix when Jacques Villeneuve suffered an engine failure after 65 laps. Jacques was the sole B*A*R contender in the race after the team withdrew Jenson Button following his crash in Saturday's free practice session.

Jacques Villeneuve:

"It's extremely frustrating that I wasn't able to finish the race again. We didn't get a very good launch start and I lost time behind Heidfeld. I suspected there was something wrong with the engine at the first pitstop. There was an engine noise change and vibration, then it gave up coming through the tunnel. Once again I'm going to have to put this weekend behind me, focus on testing and hope for better things in the next race."

Jenson Button:

"I'm obviously extremely disappointed that I was only spectating today. The weekend started out so well for me and I felt very confident that we could expect a strong finish here. I really wanted to race but at the same time I knew that withdrawing was the safest option. It's far better for me to relax and prepare for the next race in Canada. The team did a great job for me on Thursday and Saturday morning, so it's disappointing that we weren't able to make the most of it."

David Richards, Team Principal:

"The weekend started off so well with both drivers challenging for top positions on Thursday. After such a positive start, it's disappointing how things have turned out. Naturally I'm very pleased that Jenson is in such good form after his enormous crash yesterday and he is looking forward to getting back into the car as soon as possible. One has to really feel for Jacques after yet another retirement when he'd driven such a solid race. I can only hope that his luck changes for his home event in Canada in two week's time."

Geoffrey Willis, Technical Director:

"Jacques drove a strong race today which was complimented by excellent work from our pit crew. As the pitstops showed, we qualified with more fuel than most of the grid and were pleased with our race pace. Unfortunately, Jacques was stuck behind da Matta for 22 laps and lost nearly 30 seconds as a result. Once he was on a free track, Jacques was able to lap within a few tenths of Barrichello. It's very disappointing that Jacques retired again after so much effort. We now have to put a difficult weekend behind us and work towards Montreal with renewed energy."

Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development:

"This has been a really tough weekend but we've shown how competitive we can be both in qualifying and race trim. I'm sorry Jacques was not able to finish as he was having a good race. We don't yet know what caused the engine to stop but we will investigate everything thoroughly this week. However, we have to put it behind us now and look forward to Canada where we'll have both guys back in action again."

Jacques Villeneuve
Chassis: BAR Honda 005-02
DNF: (65 laps)

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