Both Honda drivers qualify in top 10
The Honda Racing F1 Team enjoyed its most successful qualifying session of the year in Monaco today, with Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button both making it through to Q3. The two drivers will start tomorrow’s Monaco Grand Prix from ninth and 10th places.
Although the qualifying session was dry, heavy rain during this morning’s free practice session left the track very green and slippery. As a result, the drivers completed their first flying laps of Q1 on Bridgestone’s harder, more durable compound. Then, as the track rubbered-in during the session, they swapped to the softer, grippier rubber and improved their lap times.
The RA107 has worked well throughout the weekend and, in Q1, the drivers were pleased to set the eighth (Rubens) and ninth (Jenson) fastest times, separated by less than 0.1s.
In Q2 they set even closer lap times – separated by 0.003s – and, initially, that miniscule gap was enough for Rubens (10th) to make the cut for Q3 and Jenson (11th) to be knocked out. But David Coulthard was penalised by the stewards for baulking another driver in Q2 and Jenson was promoted to 10th, which allowed him to join the action for the final 15 minutes.
Q3 was a straightforward session for the Honda Racing F1 Team. Rubens set a fastest lap of 1:17.498s to be ninth quickest, with Jenson 0.5s slower in 10th.
The team will now spend this evening finalising its strategy, ahead of tomorrow’s 78-lap race.
Rubens Barrichello “I would like to say a big thank you to the whole team today. We did a fantastic job to make it through to the final session. Little by little we are improving and although we still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do, we are encouraged. I know we will get back to where we belong. I’m very excited for tomorrow. This is always a great race but starting P9 really gives us a shot at the points.”
Jenson Button “It’s great that we made it through to the third session today. Definitely a step in the right direction. My radio wasn’t working properly and it was crackling the whole time so in the end I had to unplug it completely, which was far from ideal because we had to be ‘on it’ the whole time during today’s qualifying. Monaco places a premium on qualifying position so what we have achieved today is great. The team did a good job and we can do well tomorrow so I’m really looking forward to it.”
Jacky Eeckelaert, Engineering Director “Our best qualifying session of the year and we are very pleased to see both drivers in the top ten, particularly here in Monaco where a good grid position can have such an impact on the race. Both drivers got all of the performance possible out of the car today with some excellent driving and also credit is due to the team for the job they did of running the cars. This morning, the free practice session was affected by some rain just before and during the session but thankfully qualifying remained dry and we can now look forward to a stronger race tomorrow.”
