Belgian GP: BAR Friday practice notes

The typically temperamental weather conditions in Spa meant that little in the way of meaningful running was achieved on day one of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.

B*A*R Honda's Jenson Button and Takuma Sato ran through their regular morning programme of installation runs and set-up work, completing seven laps each of the Spa-Franchorchamps circuit. As usual, the intention was to work on tyre selection this afternoon but the weather had other ideas and the entire second session was lost to a downpour.

In these circumstances, the FIA extends the tyre selection deadline to noon on Saturday and so the team will be hoping for better conditions for tomorrow's free practice sessions in preparation for qualifying, although the weather forecast for the morning doesn't look too promising!

Jenson Button:

"We've been here many times before so today's weather is hardly surprising. The only good thing is that everyone is in the same boat. We'll obviously do what work we can with the little data we gathered this morning and then start tomorrow with better conditions I hope."

Takuma Sato:

"There is little to say about today because of the weather. I did only a few laps at the end of the morning session in drying conditions, but my first impression is that our package should be quite good. We will just have two very busy sessions tomorrow."

Gil de Ferran, Sporting director:

"Obviously it was far too wet for any of the drivers to venture out on track this afternoon. Tomorrow morning will be a challenge as we try to compress the work from all four practice sessions into one and a half hours before making our dry tyre choice at mid-day. The weather forecast for tomorrow is for more of the same conditions, so things could get very interesting here this weekend!"

Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering director, Honda Racing Development:

"The upgraded engine worked fine in the few laps we completed. As usual in Spa, we need to be ready for all kinds of weather conditions!"

Jenson Button
Chassis: BAR Honda 007-04
Free Practice 1: 6th
Fastest lap time: 1:49.890
Free Practice 2: No running

Takuma Sato
Chassis: BAR Honda 007-05
Free Practice 1: 11th
Fastest lap time: 1:51.003
Free Practice 2: No running

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