Davidson tops times in Sepang
Textbook start for the Honda Racing F1 Team in Malaysia. The Honda Racing F1 Team kicked off its Malaysian Grand Prix preparations in fine style at Sepang today. The opening two practice sessions ended with all three of the team’s cars inside the top 10, and third driver Anthony Davidson at the top of the timesheets.
As was the case in Bahrain last weekend, Davidson completed the bulk of the mileage. In session one, neither Jenson Button nor Rubens Barrichello completed a lap, preferring to conserve their equipment in the extreme conditions, which saw the ambient temperature nudge 38 degrees. Anthony, meanwhile, completed 25 laps and finished the session third fastest, with a time of 1:35.997s.
In session two, both race drivers took to the track for the first time to do some set-up work and tyre comparison tests. But it was Anthony who again did the most laps – 14 – and he topped the timesheets on his final lap of the day with a time of 1:38.012s.
The only hiccup for the team was a spin at the penultimate corner by Anthony in session two. He stalled his RA106, but it was quickly returned to the pits and he continued with his test programme.
Jenson ended the day in eighth position, after completing 12 laps and setting a fastest time of 1:36.661s; Rubens completed 13 laps and set a time of 1:37.270s to be 10th.
ANTHONY DAVIDSON
Free Practice 1 – Position: 3rd / No of Laps: 25 / Fastest lap time: 1:35.997
Free Practice 2 – Position: 1st / No of Laps: 14 Fastest lap time: 1:35.041
Anthony Davidson “Obviously I’m pleased to end Friday at the top of the timesheets for the second race in a row. It hasn’t been quite as straightforward a day as we hoped, due to the problem I had with the rears locking. This caused me to spin and lose a lot of time in the second session. Overall I think we ended the day in better shape and some good information to work with to improve the car.”
JENSON BUTTON
Free Practice 1 – No Timed Lap (Third Car Programme)
Free Practice 2 – Position: 8th / No of Laps: 12 / Fastest lap time: 1:36.661
Jenson Button “A pretty straightforward day for us in terms of our set-up and tyre programme. There’s still a lot more to come from the car and some work to be done to nail the set-up, as Anthony’s problem demonstrated. Hopefully we can solve our problems for tomorrow.”
RUBENS BARRICHELLO
Free Practice 1 – No Timed Lap (Third Car Programme)
Free Practice 2 – Position: 10th / No of Laps: 13 / Fastest lap time: 1:37.270
Rubens Barrichello “We still have some work to do on the braking – I’m still struggling with that a little from Bahrain. There’s still a lot of work to do on the set-up but it was positive to see where Anthony ended up today.”
