Formula One news

Button gives Honda hope in twelfth

Honda's Jenson Button will line up on the sixth row of the grid for tomorrow's inaugural Singapore Grand Prix after an improved qualifying performance compared with recent races put him in 12th place. However, there were mixed fortunes for the team as Rubens Barrichello fell foul of traffic on both his runs and dropped out of Q1.

"I'm pretty happy with our qualifying performance today and it is certainly a big improvement on the last few races," said Button. "My final lap was compromised with too much understeer and very low grip in the first sector, but it was reasonable and it's nice to have the pace to compete in Q2 again. We got to grips with the circuit pretty quickly at the start of the weekend, which has provided a good foundation for qualifying today and our race preparation for tomorrow." 

Barrichello commented, "Unfortunately qualifying did not work out for us today with traffic costing me an improved grid position. On my second run I was stuck behind Heidfeld, which compromised my lap, and then on the last run Alonso spun ahead of me and there was a yellow flag which meant I was unable to improve in the last sector. It's a shame because I would have improved my qualifying performance."

Honda's head of engineering Steve Clark added, "Singapore is a maximum downforce circuit, on which the RA108 is certainly more competitive. Getting the set-up right has been a challenge but we made some improvements overnight and we have seen the benefit of that today with Jenson, who had a strong qualifying session and was certainly in contention for the top ten today. The weekend has been more frustrating for Rubens, who was unlucky today when traffic compromised both his runs in Q1 because he certainly had the pace to progress to Q2."

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