Honda surprises in qualifying session
The Honda Racing F1 Team enjoyed a positive first qualifying session of the year at Albert Park. Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button both set times less than 0.2s shy of the top 10 and they will start tomorrow’s 58-lap race from 11th and 13th positions respectively.
Melbourne continued to bask in unseasonably hot conditions today, although the ambient and track temperatures were both down on yesterday. Rubens and Jenson used this morning’s final practice session to hone the set up of their RA108s and they hit the ground running when qualifying kicked off at 2.00pm local time.
Both drivers completed two runs apiece during Q1 and they managed to improve their cars between each. Rubens achieved a pleasing seventh place, with a time of 1:26.369s, while Jenson was back in 12th position with a lap of 1:26.712s.
Q2 was disrupted by a red flag when local hero Mark Webber spun at Turn 5 and his car was left stranded in a dangerous position. The stoppage forced both Honda Racing F1 Team drivers to abandon their first qualifying runs of Q2 as a result.
When the session was restarted five minutes later, the drivers immediately headed onto the track. Jenson’s first run was a 1:26.259s and Rubens was just 0.1s slower. Jenson ended the session in 13th place, while Rubens improved his time by 0.2s. He will start tomorrow’s race from 11th position.
The drivers are keeping their expectations for the Australian Grand Prix – which starts at 3.30pm local time – in check, but they surprised many with their pace this afternoon.
"I am really pleased with our qualifying position today,” effused Rubens Barrichello. “Everybody back at the factory and here at the track has done a great job. It's very tight in the midfield, but if you look back to just over a month ago at our position in testing and compare that with where we are today, you can see the step forward that has been made after a lot of hard work. The car performed well and it's satisfying to know that we have made real progress over the last few weeks.
“Obviously I'm disappointed to just miss out on the top ten but on the other hand from 11th we can choose our own strategy and take into account the weather, so it works out quite well. Today has been a good start to the season for us and now we have to focus on turning this into a good race performance tomorrow."
Jenson Button was similarly pleased with progress but felt he hadn’t maximised the potential of his RA108. "The car certainly performed well,” he said, “but unfortunately I lost two-tenths at both turn 9 and the last corner with understeer at the apex which caused me to run wide. It’s very frustrating as I was pushing too hard, however the fact that both Rubens and I just missed out on the top ten is certainly encouraging and I'm looking forward to seeing how our performance translates to the race tomorrow."
