Button faces 10-place grid penalty after engine change

In today’s qualifying session for the Turkish Grand Prix the Honda Racing F1 Team drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button made it through to Q2 where they ended the session in 14th and 15th positions respectively. Rubens’ time of 1:28.188 was 0.3secs shy of a place in the top 10.

As Jenson came into the pits at the end of the second session his engine started to lose power and it will now have to be changed for tomorrow’s race, which will incur a 10-place grid penalty.

Rubens Barrichello “It was a good qualifying. I think we were at the very limit of the car, as we could see for both myself and Jenson. It’s frustrating to be so near to the top ten, yet in some ways still a little too far. We seem to have solved a few of the problems we saw in Hungary, so a better weekend so far. We will now have to see what tomorrow brings in terms of results but for sure it will be a tough and very hot race.”

Jenson Button “The first three runs in qualifying went well. On the last run I tried to push the car a bit more but I just ended up with a big snap of oversteer and lost quite a bit of time. That’s where we’re at though. You either drive the car round and do OK or try to push and then you’re on a knife-edge. That’s what we’re dealing with I’m afraid. We’ll have to see what we can do in the race.”

Jacky Eeckelaert, Engineering Director “Rubens had a trouble-free Saturday. This morning in free practice his car balance had improved since yesterday and he went on to qualify in P14. Jenson had three good qualifying runs and was pushing hard but on the last run lost some time at turn seven and ended the session just behind his team-mate. Unfortunately, as he came into the pits, his engine started to lose power and we will now have to change it for tomorrow’s race and take the 10 place penalty.”