Motor Racing: Button struggles to hide frustration as flags and

Even Jenson Button cannot have foreseen what an unmitigated disaster his British Grand Prix would become when he cautioned his loyal fans in the week before the race not to expect too much.

First there was the fiasco in qualifying, when he was not in a position to challenge for a better lap time as David Coulthard, Christian Klien and Tiago Monteiro improved and bumped him out of contention after the first session, leaving him a lowly 19th. Then came his eight-lap race.

He started well and overtook Christijan Albers and Monteiro in their Midlands, Klien's Red Bull, Jarno Trulli's Toyota and Tonio Liuzzi's Toro Rosso, and he benefited from the first-lap accident that eliminated Scott Speed, Ralf Schumacher and Mark Webber. But then his Honda engine developed a problem and he spun into dusty retirement in the gravel trap at Luffield.

"We weren't as quick as the leaders, but the car was working well and had a good balance," he said. "I was absolutely loving it out there, working my way through the field and, given our fuel load, I was doing pretty well. Then I saw the flames out of the back of the car and went off due to oil on the tyres, so it's looking like an engine oil tank leak, unfortunately.

"A disappointing end to the weekend really, especially in front of my home crowd. It's frustrating that I couldn't give them the race they deserved. When I walked back in it was quite emotional as there were lots of cheers and flags being waved. The fans' support this weekend has been fantastic."

But not the outcome. This is now the longest period I without a British winner in formula one, as yesterday marked the 59th race since ' David Coulthard's win in I Australia in 2003. Prior to that, the record was 52 races between James Hunt's last ' win in 1977 and John Watson's British GP victory in 1981

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