US GRAND PRIX 1 M Schumacher (Ferrari) 2 R Barrichello (Ferrari) 3 T Sato (BAR) 4 J Trulli (Renault) 5 O Panis (Toyota) 6 K Raikkonen (McLaren) 7 D Coulthard (McLaren) 8 Z Baumgartner (Minardi) Full result Race report Photos from Indianapolis

"It's frustrating, because the car was working really well here," Button said.

"When Ralf Schumacher had his big accident, we decided to stay out, instead of pitting under the safety car - it was the right thing to do.

"The car was working well and was very stable. The traction was exceptional, so it was disappointing not to finish."

Button's team-mate Takuma Sato scored the first podium finish of his career to equal the best result ever by a Japanese driver.

It was Button's first retirement of the season, and althoug he held on to third place in the championship he lost ground on Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello in second place.

Barrichello now has an 18-point lead over the Englishman, who is just four points ahead of Renault's Jarno Trulli.

Technical director Geoff Willis said: "We had very poor starts, particularly Jenson, but after that our car was extremely quick but unfortunately we did not get the opportunity to race the Ferraris.

"The situation was complex; we decided not to pit at the second safety car and this should have worked well for us had Schumacher not managed to get back out in front of us behind the safety car.

"After that, both cars were held up by the Ferraris until our first planned stops. After Jenson's first stop it was clear that we had problems with his gearbox so we had to retire his car.

"Takuma was consistently very fast throughout the rest of the race and quickly caught up Trulli, who made a mistake allowing Takuma to pass him for third place."