Formula One news

Honda struggling for pace

Honda drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello experienced a productive day of set-up work. In the opening session the track gradually picked up grip and both drivers were reasonably happy with the balance of their RA107 race cars at the end of the morning. They ended the session in 8th and 9th positions respectively and each completed 20 laps.

This afternoon Jenson and Rubens completed 47 laps and 29 laps respectively, ending the day 16th and 18th. With a lot of resulting data and a good underlying balance there is plenty of scope to improve the car through the remainder of the weekend.

"We have had a reasonable day today," said Button. "We tested a few new things which seem to have made a small improvement to the balance of the car and also the lap time. It started spitting with rain just before the end of the afternoon session but we had done enough by then to achieve a good tyre comparison. There were two yellow flags on my new tyre run at the end of the session, one for Hamilton and one for Massa, so unfortunately I wasn't able to get a good clean run. As a result we are a little unsure of where we are over one lap but the long run pace is looking okay."

Barrichello commented, "As is usual for a Friday there was a lot of traffic today. The car was a lot more competitive in the first session this morning than in the second practice. We struggled with a lack of rear grip in the afternoon so we need to look into that and find a solution. Both our cars covered a lot of laps so this gives us a lot of information to work with for the rest of the weekend."

Engineering director JAcky Eeckelaert added, "We have made a reasonably good start to the weekend with both of the drivers completing the full programme of set-up work. In free practice one the track conditions changed a lot during the first part of the session, however both drivers found a good balance. This afternoon they concentrated on tyre evaluations with a heavy fuel load in preparation for the race on Sunday. Apart from traffic on the new tyre runs and a small brake duct problem on Rubens' car, all went according to plan."

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