Formula One news
Honda upbeat after first practice
22 May 2008 / Results / PhotosHonda began its on-track preparations for the Monaco Grand Prix today as the Principality basked in perfect sunny conditions throughout the two free practice sessions.
As is usually the case on the opening day at Monaco, the track only became representative during the afternoon session, once some rubber had been laid on the racing line. As a result, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello completed a modest 26 laps each during the morning session, at the end of which Rubens was eighth fastest and Jenson 12th.
This afternoon, Jenson completed 45 laps during the second session, with a best time of 1:16.351s, which placed him eighth overall. Rubens completed 32 laps to end the day within 0.1s of his team-mate, placing him 10th.
"It's always very exciting to be back in Monaco and out on track for the first day of running," said Button. "We had two good opening sessions and I had a reasonable balance right from the start, particularly on the harder tyre. This afternoon has really been about getting the long runs in, getting used to the balance and making some improvements. We have a lot of useful information from the two sessions today, however as always there is still work to do. We are not quite where we would like to be yet, and as qualifying does not take place until Saturday, I have plenty of time to work with the engineers. I'm confident that we will be in a good position for qualifying and also well prepared for any changes in the weather conditions."
Barrichello commented, "Our programme today was focused on the set-up of the car as the track improves a great deal here over the sessions. We completed a good part of our work as the car feels competitive this afternoon, so I am happy with what we achieved. As always, we don't really know where we stand in terms of the competition yet as everyone will have been running different set-up and fuel programmes."
Steve Clark, head of engineering added, "This morning was spent conducting race preparation work, whilst the second session was dedicated to set-up work and evaluating the tyres for qualifying. Neither driver had a particularly good run on the option tyre, which is brand new for this race. This is not surprising for a Thursday here as the track grip will continue to improve considerably, so we still expect the option to be a good tyre for qualifying and the race."
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