Formula One news

Honda optimistic after practice

The Honda Racing F1 Team enjoyed a competitive day's running in Shanghai today as free practice got underway for Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix. This morning, Anthony Davidson occupied his usual place at the sharp end of the field, ending the session in second position. This afternoon, the threat of rain came to fruition which made tyre comparisons difficult in the changeable conditions. The three drivers ended the day third, 11th and 16th.

"We've achieved a lot of work considering the weather conditions and I think we're looking reasonably competitive so far," said Button. "This afternoon, the conditions were pretty poor which made it difficult to conduct any meaningful tyre comparison work."

Barrichello commented, "I had a very strange day today because my car had a balance this morning and then it was changing this afternoon. So the car feels very different from run to run and we need to find out what is causing the problem. Apart from that I'm very confident that the tyres should do a good job. It's a great circuit and I think we can continue to improve here throughout the weekend so I'm reasonably happy at this stage."
Sporting director Gil de Ferran added, "Despite the slight drizzle during the second session, we were able to complete the planned programme today with all three cars. We didn't have any major issues; however there is room for improvement with the balance of both race cars, which is somewhat inconsistent at the moment. Tonight we will sit down with the Michelin engineers to look over the tyre data and help us make a difficult choice, as it appears that they brought two very good tyres to China. A good start to the weekend and we look competitive at this point."

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