Mixed fortunes for Honda

Rubens Barrichello qualified in seventh place, while Jenson Button struggled with the handling of his RA106 and will start tomorrow’s race from 14th position. It will be the first time this season that Jenson has failed to start from inside the top 10.

Rubens was faster than his team-mate throughout the qualifying session. In the first 15-minute segment, he was eighth fastest with a time of 1:14.766s, while Jenson was 11th with a 1:15.085s. There was a red flag after seven minutes, but the session otherwise passed relatively smoothly for the team.

In session two, Jenson continued to struggle with the balance of his car and he could manage only 14th position with a time of 1:14.982s. His struggles were highlighted when he was forced to abort a lap with just six minutes remaining in order to make a set-up change to the car.

Rubens was 10th fastest, 0.6s faster than Jenson. It was enough for him to graduate into the final 20-minute session that decides the top 10 grid positions.

The handling of Rubens’ RA106 improved as more rubber went down on the track and he was able to set a time of 1:15.804s in the final segment, which placed him seventh on the grid.

Like many other drivers, Rubens was forced to abort his final qualifying lap, following an incident involving Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari, which was partially blocking the track at Rascasse.

Jenson Button "The balance of the car was reasonable on old tyres but I had an unexpected amount of understeer when we switched to new tyres. I was quicker on old tyres than new. Right now we don’t know why so we will have to look at the data but everyone knows that qualifying well here is crucial for the race and I’m obviously extremely frustrated to be starting so far back here for a race I felt confident we could do well in.”

Rubens Barrichello “It was crazy out there, just like everybody predicted. I was trying very hard to avoid getting in other people’s way and they were doing the same for me, which was nice to see. I want to thank the team for a fantastic job today and making the right decisions and quickly. 7th is not a bad place to start tomorrow and it should be an incredible race.”