Rows three and four for Jenson and Rubens

The Honda Racing F1 Team’s drivers will start tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix from the third and fourth rows of the grid. Rubens Barrichello will line up in fifth position and team-mate Jenson Button in eighth.

The qualifying session got off to a nerve-wracking start for the team when both drivers had to abort their first timed laps of Q1 due to a red flag. They pitted immediately and, with eight minutes of the session remaining, they took to the track on new tyres. Both drivers sailed through to Q2 when they set the fourth (Jenson) and ninth (Rubens) fastest times.

Q2 ran more smoothly, but such was the competitiveness of the cars at the front of the field that Jenson and Rubens elected to use two sets of new tyres to ensure that they progressed through to the final, top 10 qualifying session. At the end of the 15-minute session, Jenson was in fifth place and Rubens in eighth.

In the final 20-minute session, both drivers took to the track immediately to burn off as much fuel as possible by the end of the session. Rubens completed 23 laps and Jenson 24 laps en route to setting times of 1:15.885s and 1:16.008s on their final runs.

Pole position at the Circuit de Catalunya is situated on the outside of the track, which means that Rubens – in fifth – will also start on the clean, outside line; Jenson will be on the dustier inside in eighth.

Tomorrow’s 66-lap race is the 50th running of the Spanish Grand Prix.