HONDA F1

Jenson Button is optimistic his Honda team will be competitive in Saturday's qualifying after a solid start in today's practice session.

"We had two good opening sessions and I had a reasonable balance right from the start, particularly on the harder tyre," said Button, who posted the eighth fastest time in the afternoon.

"This afternoon has really been about getting the long runs in, getting used to the balance and making some improvements.

"We have a lot of useful information from the two sessions today, however as always there is still work to do. We are not quite where we would like to be yet, and as qualifying does not take place until Saturday, I have plenty of time to work with the engineers.

"I'm confident that we will be in a good position for qualifying and also well prepared for any changes in the weather conditions," added the Briton.

Rubens Barrichello finished two places behind and the Brazilian was also feeling confident about Honda's form for the remaining part of the weekend.

"Our programme today was focused on the set-up of the car as the track improves a great deal here over the sessions," explained Barrichello. "We completed a good part of our work as the car feels competitive this afternoon, so I am happy with what we achieved.

"As always, we don't really know where we stand in terms of the competition yet as everyone will have been running different set-up and fuel programmes.

"Monaco is always a very open race where it is important to have a good qualifying session. Based on our work today, I believe we can have a good weekend; so let's hope that this is the case. The weather will no doubt play a part on Saturday and Sunday as it looks like we will have some rain."