Podium place and champagne for Button

A sensational drive from Jenson Button in the Malaysian Grand Prix gave him and the Honda Racing F1 Team their first podium finish of 2006. Jenson’s pace throughout the 56-lap race was strong, which confirmed the potential of this year’s RA106.

Rubens Barrichello, by contrast, had a tough race. He started from 20th position, having received a 10-place grid penalty after the team changed his engine yesterday morning, and he climbed steadily through the field to be 10th at the chequered flag.

At the start of the race, Jenson made a clean get-away from the front row to be second into the first corner. A very strong opening stint followed, which resulted in him taking over the lead of the race when Giancarlo Fisichella pitted on lap 17. Jenson made his first pitstop on lap 18, rejoining the race in fourth position.

Rubens also drove a strong opening stint. With a heavy fuel load, he charged through the field to be 11th by lap 19. He then pitted for tyres and fuel on lap 31, rejoining in 11th place, and looked set for a points-scoring finish.

Unfortunately, he was booked by the stewards for speeding in the pitlane and he had to return to the pits on lap 36 for a 10-second stop-go penalty, which ended his chances of a strong finish.

At the front, Jenson remained just a few seconds shy of race leader Fisichella, until he was held up by a slower car on his in-lap, on lap 38. The incident ultimately cost him second place because he emerged from the pitlane behind Fernando Alonso and had to settle for third place.

Honda now has a two-week gap and a test in Vallelunga, Italy, before the next race, the Australian Grand Prix, on 2nd April.

Jenson Button“I’m obviously pleased to see us back on the podium but it was the top step that we had in mind, so we are a little disappointed. We want to be winning races and today showed that we are in the fight, but there is still a lot of work to be done before we can achieve that target. Having said that, I was held up by traffic a few times, not least of all by Scott Speed before the second pitstop. Had that not happened, maybe I could have come out of the pits ahead of Alonso. Regardless of that though, we have two weeks and a test in Vallelunga to work through our issues and hopefully we can look forward to better things in Melbourne in two weeks’ time.”

Rubens Barrichello “It’s certainly been an eventful weekend and it was disappointing to end it with a stop-go penalty when I was in with a chance of at least coming away with a few points. These past two races have been a bit of a learning curve but I’m sure things will pick up for the next few races and we can start to realise more of the car’s potential.”