Formula 1
Brazilian GP: Honda qualifying report
Rubens Barrichello will start his home Grand Prix from 15th position after maximising the performance of his RA108 in Q1 at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace. The Brazilian made it through to Q2 for the second consecutive race, while his Honda ...
Edited: Nov 2, 2008, 1:21 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Rubens Barrichello will start his home Grand Prix from 15th position after maximising the performance of his RA108 in Q1 at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace. The Brazilian made it through to Q2 for the second consecutive race, while his Honda team-mate Jenson Button missed the cut by just 0.2s and will start tomorrow's race from 17th place.
Sunshine over Sao Paulo increased the track temperature at Interlagos to 41 degrees, which helped the team to find more performance from the option tyres than had been the case in the cooler conditions of yesterday's practice sessions. The drivers set up their cars to suit the conditions early in the session, before going on to improve their lap times significantly.
Rubens' first flying lap of Q1 was 1:13.030s and he improved by more than 0.5s to set the 14th fastest time and progress into Q2.
Jenson completed three runs during Q1. His first lap was a 1:13.351s and he improved to a best time of 1:12.810s. Despite being only a second slower than Felipe Massa's fastest time, it wasn't quite enough to see him progress into the next part of qualifying.
Rubens was unable to achieve the same level of grip in Q2 and his best lap was 0.6s slower than he had managed in Q1 therefore he will line up on the eighth row of the grid.
RUBENS BARRICHELLO
Q. A great lap today to make Q2 for the second race in succession.
A. "I'm pleased that we were able to make it into the second qualifying session here in Interlagos today. We had a perfect lap on my second run in Q1 with the option tyres working really well. Unfortunately we couldn't get the same grip level in Q2 and were really struggling with understeer. Despite tweaking the pressures to try and improve, we weren't able to make any further progress. Without the understeer, I could have hoped for 14th or maybe even 13th but we were right on the limit of the car's performance."
JENSON BUTTON
Q. What issues did you face in qualifying today?
A. "The car was a definite improvement from practice this morning as I had much more front grip. Unfortunately I made a mistake on my second lap in turn 4, which cost me some time. We made some adjustments to the pressures to help the front end grip before my final run and we were able to go quicker but not by enough. In any case, my car stopped out on track on my in-lap."
STEVE CLARK
Head of Race & Test Engineering
Q. How do you feel about the team's qualifying performance today?
A. "Obviously we are very satisfied with Rubens getting through to Q2 for the second time in as many race weekends. Realistically he extracted the maximum from the car with the performance we have today and so this was, in his own words, a fantastic lap. For Jenson, the session was very tight and he didn't quite have the balance to make it through. After progressing through to Q2, with an evolving track, we were just unable to get the balance back with the single set of options he had remaining."
Q. What is the outlook for tomorrow's race?
A. "The weather may well play a pivotal role in tomorrow's race. Forecasts vary but rain seems extremely likely. From our grid positions, rain, and the chaos it brings, is not unwelcome for us as the conditions hand more responsibility to the driver and both of ours are extremely good in the wet."
-credit: honda
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Brazilian GP: Qualifying times
Next article Tiago Monteiro connected with acquisition of GP2 team
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Felipe Massa
On this day: Michael Schumacher wins… and stuns tifosi with F1 retirement
Formula 1
Formula 1
Italian GP
On this day: Michael Schumacher wins… and stuns tifosi with F1 retirement
Defendant ordered to pay £250,000 legal fees in Felipe Massa F1 title case
Formula 1
Formula 1
Defendant ordered to pay £250,000 legal fees in Felipe Massa F1 title case
Felipe Massa’s F1 2008 lawsuit will proceed to trial
Formula 1
Formula 1
Las Vegas GP
Felipe Massa’s F1 2008 lawsuit will proceed to trial
Latest news
Lando Norris faces anxious wait as F2 prepares to decide future of his racing team
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
2 h
Lando Norris faces anxious wait as F2 prepares to decide future of his racing team
NASCAR Cup Phoenix starting lineup: Blaney earns pole as Larson struggles
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
3 h
NASCAR Cup Phoenix starting lineup: Blaney earns pole as Larson struggles
Ryan Blaney kind of faces a must-win scenario this weekend at Phoenix
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
4 h
Ryan Blaney kind of faces a must-win scenario this weekend at Phoenix
Catching Larson in the NASCAR Chase has to start at track where 'I suck'
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
5 h
Catching Larson in the NASCAR Chase has to start at track where 'I suck'
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe