Formula One news

Honda hopeful after practice

Honda worked through a detailed set-up programme with both RA108 cars, honing the aerodynamic package to the demands of the 5.338km track. They ran reliably throughout the two 1.5-hour sessions, providing Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello with a good baseline from which to progress through the remainder of the race weekend.

At the end of the day Jenson was 11th overall, while Rubens finished 15th on the timesheets.

"We made a lot of changes to the car after this morning when I was struggling with a lack of grip on initial turn in which you really need around here," said Button. "This afternoon was much better right from the start of the session. We tried a lot of different things on the set-up and I'm confident that we know which direction to take for the rest of the weekend. This circuit is very tough without traction control and you could see that a lot of people were making mistakes but that does make it more fun to watch and drive. I was certainly enjoying it out there! The car is working better on the smoother asphalt here and we have made some changes to help with the ride quality, so for me the car feels better than in Barcelona." 

Barrichello commented, "The car was nicely balanced in the morning and we were pleased with our progress. However we made a mechanical change over lunch which changed the balance. It was too big a change to go back in the time available so we have some work to do overnight to understand what has changed. We should be able to get the car back to how it felt this morning, then I believe we have a good chance of getting through to Q3 tomorrow."

Engineering chief Steve Clark added, "The sessions ran without any incident on either car which is always good. The damp track at the start of the morning, the rain for the start of the second session and then the red flag caused by Webber's crash of course meant that we could not stick to the original plan. This is the same for everyone and something we just had to deal with."

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