Another disappointing day for Honda

Honda Racing F1 Team drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button will start tomorrow’s Bahrain Grand Prix side by side on the 8th row of the grid. Conditions were slightly overcast for the qualifying hour after the threat of a rain shower at the end of this morning’s free practice session.

The ambient and track temperatures remained high at 34 and 44 degrees for the start of Q1 which Jenson and Rubens safely passed through. On the softer of the two Bridgestone Potenza tyre compounds they improved their lap times with each run and ended the session separated by just 0.2s. Rubens’ fastest lap was 1:33.776s, placing him 14th, while Jenson’s best was 1:33.967s, placing him 16th.

In Q2 the track conditions were better as more soft-compound rubber was laid down on the racing line, however the current performance limitations of the RA107 prevented the drivers from climbing higher up the starting order. Rubens’ fastest lap of 1:33.624s placed him 15th, Jenson’s fastest of 1:33.731s placed him 16th.

Q1 P16 01:33.967 | Q2 P16 01:33.731 | Q3 Did not qualify
“We’ve qualified roughly where we have done for the past two races, and as we have acknowledged, that is as quick as the car goes right now. In Q1 I had a problem with the front wing. My first option (soft) tyre run was quite good and then during the next run on the option we lost masses of front downforce and at every corner I was locking up the fronts. I kept moving further rearwards on the brake bias but it didn’t really help. In Q2 we tried a different front wing but it didn’t improve things. I think we got the best from the car again today so it’s down to what we can do in the race now.”

Q1 P14 01:33.766 | Q2 P15 01:33.624 | Q3 Did not qualify
“This morning I had a few problems with the aerodynamic set-up of the car but this improved a little for qualifying. The qualifying session itself was straightforward enough but I am getting the most from the car as it is right now and unfortunately that is 15th position. As always we will be looking for any possibilities to improve during the race.”

Jacky Eeckelaert, Engineering Director “Today both Jenson and Rubens achieved the best they could with the car we have for the moment. Both cars will start from row 8 tomorrow and with a good race strategy we can make up some places, have a good fight with the cars around us and hopefully target a point or two.”