Saturday March 16th, 2002

The Renault team were unable to achieve their goal of getting both their drivers in the top ten in today's qualifying at the Sepang circuit.

Briton Jenson Button was a happy man after completing a promising qualifying which saw him finishing in eighth place, more than half a second ahead of teammate Jarno Trulli, the Italian only capable of posting the 12th fastest time after a difficult session.

Pat Symonds, Renault's director of engineering, said the French squad had failed to achieve their goal, but was nonetheless happy with Button's performance.

"Mixed feelings after qualifying, as I feel we missed our target of getting both cars in the top 10," said Symonds after qualifying. "Jarno had a problematic session, suffering from traffic during his runs and failing to achieve the balance he was looking for.

"Jenson experienced a problem that forced him to take the spare car for his final run. The fact he then managed to improve his time is a measure of the capability of both driver and team."

Published at 09:38:13 GMT