Formula One news

Small improvement for Honda in qualifying

Honda's Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button will start tomorrow's Spanish Grand Prix from the 6th and 7th rows of the grid after ending this afternoon's qualifying session in 12th and 14th places respectively.

Both drivers made it through the first of the two knock-out rounds, with Jenson ending Q1 in 15th and Rubens in 14th. Today's result demonstrated signs of a small step forward in car stability and performance but there is still a long way to go.

"This was a reasonable qualifying session for us today, all things considered," said Button. "We are a little bit further up the grid and closer to P10 which is a nice surprise. We have done a good job of setting the car up for the race but I really struggled with the balance this morning and the pace over one lap. It was much better this afternoon, although I made a small mistake at turn six and lost some time, which is annoying. It will be an exciting race tomorrow but unfortunately it will be tough to get into the points. We have made some progress though, which is a good sign."

Barrichello commented, "Although we are still far away from where we want to be this is our best qualifying performance of the season so far, so I guess that points towards some small improvement and we can be slightly happier. We started to make some progress here in testing last week and I am hopeful that we can carry this momentum through to tomorrow. We have a good strategy and this should help us to have a better race."

Engineering director Jacky Eeckelaert added, "Today's qualifying session showed that we have made a small step in the right direction by closing the gap to our immediate competitors. Our fastest car qualified in 12th place, which is not what we aim for, but the drivers and team made the very best of the car that we have and should be congratulated. Everyone is working very hard and we are encouraged that our race pace seems to be somewhat closer to the direct competition, which makes us a little more optimistic for tomorrow and the races ahead."

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