FORMULA ONE SPANISH GRAND PRIX: FORMULA ONE world championship leader Jenson Button yesterday admitted he would have to take an aggressive approach to upcoming races if he is to maintain the title advantage he had built up over the opening four rounds of the campaign.
The Brawn GP driver goes into tomorrow's Spanish GP with a 12-point lead over nearest rival and team-mate Rubens Barrichello, and is a further point ahead of Red Bull Racing's rising star Sebastian Vettel but on a weekend on which most teams on the grid have brought their first major revisions to their cars this season, Button admitted he would have to attack.
"It's so important to be reliable, but . . . you've got to be very aggressive at this point in the year to get as many points as you can. You can't settle for a second or third. We don't have enough of a lead yet," said the Briton.
"It might all go wrong, but I think you need to be aggressive because if you potter around and pick up the points, you haven't got a chance when it gets to the end of the year."
Button was quick out of the traps at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya yesterday setting the quickest time in the morning free practice session, though the time was achieved on the softer Bridgestone tyre on offer to teams for this race, with Toyota's improving Jarno Trulli finishing close behind on the harder and slightly slower tyre.
"It was interesting in the morning as Jenson was quick on the soft tyre, but Jarno Trulli chose the harder tyres and was second fastest (just three tenths adrift). The soft compound was on average about 0.6 quicker."
The time suggests Button's Brawn GP car may be being rapidly caught by the chasing pack, though with fuel loads uncertain the true picture remains cloudier.
The afternoon session dropped Button to sixth on the timesheet with free practice Nico Rosberg once again posting the quickest time, team-mate Kazuki Nakajima just over a tenth further back and with Fernando Alonso - delivering a crowd-pleasing show lap - in third.
Button, though, later admitted he was having problems with his team's newly-revised package, taking time to adjust to a catalogue of changes including a new floor for the car, a revised engine cover, rear suspension enclosure and other aerodynamic tweaks.
"Qualifying and the race are the important sessions. Today it's not important to be quickest," Button said. "It's more about getting a good feeling and a good balance.
"I'm not there yet and I'm a bit disappointed with the way the car is at the moment. Hopefully we can improve overnight, I know that we will because we know which direction to go.
"If you look at the consistency of some of the cars you'd say the Toyotas and the Red Bulls are competitive, and the others I haven't really paid much attention to, but I'll look at the data tonight."
Rosberg meanwhile was encouraged by Williams' updated car but admitted a grid full of revised cars could negate his own progress.
"Today was our first run with the new aero components on the car and they all seemed to work well," said the German.
"They're giving us a few tenths extra per lap so we've made definite progress. Everyone has brought new developments here though so we will see how things look in qualifying."
Going backwards, however, was Lewis Hamilton. The champion's performances in both China (sixth) and Bahrain (fourth), where he finished had given hope that the troubled team was on a march back to the front of the grid but 13th at the end of yesterday afternoon left the McLaren driver confessing the new parts fitted to his car weren't working.
For Ferrari the picture looks brighter. Kimi Raikkonen took to the track yesterday armed with a new chassis and though 10th in the afternoon session was inconclusive, the Finn confidently declared afterwards the sluggish Italian side had finally closed the gap on rivals by some degree.
"We have definitely made a step forward in performance terms on the car: you can feel a greater level of aerodynamic downforce and that's what we needed," he said.
