6th place for Rubens as Jenson has to retire (again)
Rubens Barrichello was the Honda Racing F1 Team’s only finisher in this afternoon’s United States Grand Prix. He came home in an encouraging sixth place, while team-mate Jenson Button was forced to retire on lap four.
Rubens made a clean get-away from fourth place on the grid, but he was overtaken into Turn 1 by Fernando Alonso. Behind them, chaos reined.
Jenson made a good start from seventh place, but he was hit by Juan Pablo Montoya in the middle of Turn 1. Amazingly, Jenson’s RA106 survived the impact and he was able to return to the pits, where he changed tyres. He rejoined the race, but low water pressure brought about his retirement just one lap later.
On the racetrack, the Safety Car had been deployed while debris from the first-corner accident was cleared up. On lap six, the race re-started with Rubens in fifth place.
Rubens made the first of his two pitstops on lap 24, when he was stationary for just 7.5s. He rejoined the race in seventh place and set blindingly fast laps during the middle stint of the race before pitting again on lap 49.
Again Rubens rejoined in seventh, but he inherited sixth place when Ralf Schumacher retired on lap 64. After 73 laps of hard racing, he crossed the line just eight seconds behind Fernando Alonso.
Rubens and Jenson are now tied in seventh place in the World Championship standings on 16 points; the Honda Racing F1 Team lies fourth in the Constructors Championship with 32.
Rubens Barrichello “It was a long and tough race this afternoon but I’m pleased to finish in a good points position. The car was really quite nice to drive and we had chosen an aggressive strategy in qualifying. The conditions out there were also really hard with the 37 degree heat. It was a real shame that only 9 cars finished because I wanted the US fans to have a great race this year. There was a lot of action for them but the first lap incident was unfortunate. We have had a much more positive weekend here and I think if we work hard we can continue improving. We now have a busy test coming up in Jerez next week to evaluate some developments for France, where I hope we will begin a much better second half of the season.”
Jenson Button “It’s really disappointing because we were fuelled to go long and I think the strategy would have worked well for us. We had a great opportunity today. I was approaching turn two and we were already three abreast when Montoya decided to get past all three of us at the same time. He had a lot of room to go up the inside so I don’t really know why he hit my back wheel, but that pushed me into Heidfeld who hit my right rear which launched his car into the air. I saw him roll and it was all just a big mess really. We came in and the guys worked on the car but it became clear that it would not have been able to finish the race. The impact was so hard I’m surprised I was able to drive away from it, never mind get back to the pits, so it just goes to show what a strong car we have. Very frustrating but I guess we have to put it behind us and look ahead to the test next week, which should bring us some positive steps for Magny-Cours.”
Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director “We have mixed feelings about today. Rubens drove a hard race pushing all the way to collect our first points since Monaco. Jenson unfortunately got caught out in the first lap incident and as a result of the damage incurred, we had to retire the car. Overall this was a much more competitive race for us than of late, although we continue to set our sights higher. We are testing in Jerez next week to evaluate improvements for the next round where hopefully we can continue our progression.”
