Formula One news

Dismal qualifying for Honda

Hondahad a tough qualifying session in Budapest today which saw drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello qualifying in 17th and 18th positions for tomorrow's 70-lap Hungarian Grand Prix. Their RA107 cars lacked pace and this narrowly prevented both drivers from progressing into the second qualifying session. 

"The car felt reasonably good today which shows that the balance is there so we didn't expect to be in this position," said Button. "It's strange to have a car which is feeling so consistent and to still not make it out of the first qualifying session. It seems to be a lack of efficient downforce which is affecting our pace. I also lost two-tenths at the first corner compared to this morning which is a massive amount of time when everyone around you is competing so closely. It's very disappointing for both myself and the whole team."

Barrichello commented, "After practice this morning, it wasn't clear which tyre would perform better in qualifying this afternoon. Therefore we used both the prime and option tyre and they felt completely different on each of my runs. Unfortunately the car is nowhere near where we want it to be at the moment and our positions in qualifying today reflect the lack of pace. It will be a hard race for us tomorrow."

Engineering director Jacky Eeckelaert added, "After some set-up changes in morning practice, both drivers had a reasonably balanced car for qualifying. They extracted the maximum possible performance from their cars today and ended up within a tenth of a second from each other, missing out on going through to the second session by a very small margin."

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