HONDA F1

Following a slightly frustrating qualifying session at Istanbul Park, the Honda Racing F1 Team will start tomorrow’s Turkish Grand Prix from the sixth and seventh rows of the grid. Rubens Barrichello will line up in 12th place and Jenson Button 13th, after the pair set lap times less than 0.1s apart.

The weather conditions were slightly warmer for qualifying than they have been thus far this weekend, which presented all of the teams with some balance issues. Rubens and Jenson completed two runs each during Q1 in an effort to hone the set-ups of their cars. Q1 ran smoothly for the team and in the dying moments Rubens set a best time of 1:27.355s, which placed him 12th on the timesheets and safely through to Q2. Jenson, meanwhile, was less than 0.1s slower than his team-mate, but two places further back.

Further set-up tweaks took place during the break between Q1 and Q2, with the result that Rubens and Jenson were able to improve on their lap times. They completed two flying laps each and both drivers set their fastest times on their second runs. Rubens’ best was a 1:27.219s, which placed him 12th and 0.4s shy of a place in Q3; Jenson’s fastest time was 1:27.298s, placing him just behind his team-mate and on the clean side of the grid for tomorrow’s 58-lap race.

"It was a good effort from everyone today,” said Rubens, “however, unfortunately we are not as fast as we thought we might be here in Turkey. It is a balance problem, rather than the tyres or grip levels, and I believe we achieved the best that we could today. I could not get the car to perform well over the whole lap. The first and second sector were good, but the third sector was not working for us. Realistically this is where the car is at the moment. We need another step to make us a regular qualifier into Q3."

"I have to be reasonably pleased with 13th as we were struggling to get the tyres working in qualifying today,” commented Jenson. “Q1 was not too bad and we completed both runs on the prime tyre. We switched to the option for my first run in Q2 as everyone seemed to be going quicker on that tyre but for some reason the option didn't work for me and I had no grip. So we went back to the prime which should be about three-tenths slower around here so 13th is not too bad. It's annoying that we can't get the option to work but our prime tyre pace is very good, particularly over longer runs.”

Both Honda Racing F1 Team drivers have finished in the points at Istanbul Park, so they will be looking to use that experience from previous years to make up positions in the race.

“Both Jenson and Rubens are happier with their cars in race trim,” confirmed Steve Clark, Head of Race & Test Engineering, “and neither has had an off-track excursion so far. If we can have a tidy race with a consistent pace then we may still make it into the points. That is certainly the outcome we will be striving for.”

P12 for Rubens and P13 for Button.
I hope we can do betterin race tomorrow.
GO HONDA

Grand Prix of Turkey, Istanbul Park

Result of 2 free training

		coureur driver	team team	tijd time	verschil difference	# #
1.		K. Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:27.543		30
2.		L. Hamilton	McLaren	1:27.579	+0.036 +0,036	31
3.		F. Massa Bulk	Ferrari	1:27.682	+0.139 +0,139	29
4.		D. Coulthard	Red Bull Racing Red Bull Racing	1:27.763	+0.220 +0,220	24
5.		H. Kovalainen	McLaren	1:27.954	+0.411 +0,411	27
6.		R. Kubica	BMW Sauber BMW Sauber	1:28.431	+0.888 +0,888	29
7.		J. Trulli	Toyota	1:28.619	+1.076 +1,076	29
8.		K. Nakajima	Williams	1:28.664	+1.121 +1,121	27
9.		F. Alonso	Renault	1:28.681	+1.138 +1,138	26
10.		N. Heidfeld	BMW Sauber BMW Sauber	1:28.817	+1.274 +1,274	31
11.		J. Button	Honda	1:28.826	+1.283 +1,283	28
12.		T. Glock	Toyota	1:28.849	+1.306 +1,306	26
13.		N. Rosberg	Williams	1:28.907	+1.364 +1,364	29
14.		G. Fisichella	Force India Force India	1:29.008	+1.465 +1,465	35
15.		R. Barrichello	Honda	1:29.024	+1.481 +1,481	22
16.		N. Piquet Jr. Piquet Jr.	Renault	1:29.212	+1.669 +1,669	26
17.		S. Vettel	Toro Rosso Toro Rosso	1:29.462	+1.919 +1,919	30
18.		S. Bourdais	Toro Rosso Toro Rosso	1:29.630	+2.087 +2,087	32
19.		M. Webber	Red Bull Racing Red Bull Racing	1:29.633	+2.090 +2,090	4
20.		A. Sutil	Force India Force India	1:30.832	+3.289 +3,289	9