British GP: BAR Friday practice notes

Lucky Strike B*A*R Honda's British Grand Prix challenge got underway at Silverstone today with the first two of the four free practice sessions for Sunday's 60-lap race.

In this morning's session, Jenson Button was third fastest overall behind the Friday testers but the fastest of the drivers who will go on to compete in qualifying and the race. Takuma Sato posted the 8th fastest time.

This afternoon, the drivers concentrated on long-run tyre evaluation with Michelin's Silverstone options and Jenson ended the day 11th. Takuma's B*A*R Honda 007 suffered an electrical problem halfway through the session, confining him to the garage for the rest of the running and causing him to slip down the timesheets to 19th.

Jenson Button:

"It's been a reasonably good first day's running and I'm pleased that everything has gone according to plan. We completed the full programme of set-up work and tyre comparisons, which means that we have some good data to look at where we stand."

"Obviously we have some room for improvement and we need to work on our pace, but the car is feeling pretty good and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the weekend. There has been a pretty big crowd here already today so I can't wait to see the grandstands packed for qualifying and the race. It should be a great weekend for the fans!"

Takuma Sato:

"Today has been a difficult start to the weekend on my side. I struggled with low grip - especially with the front end of the car. In fact, it was very surprising to me to have such little grip and I struggled a lot during the day because of this. In the end, I had an electrical problem and because I was then stuck in the pits I was unable to complete any tyre testing. We need to find out what caused the balance problems now and I hope for better things tomorrow."

Gil de Ferran, Sporting director:

"It has been a mixed day for us today. On Jenson's car we had a very productive day, we completed our tyre evaluation and he seems fairly happy with the car. Speed-wise, Jenson did some quite competitive long runs which make us positive for the weekend."

"On the other hand, we unfortunately had a disrupted second session on Taku's car when an electrical problem stopped his day early, making it difficult to draw definite conclusions."

Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering director, Honda Racing Development:

"It was a shame to lose the last 20 minutes of running on Taku's car, but overall we had a solid start to the weekend, with both engines performing well."

Jenson Button
Chassis: BAR Honda 007-04
Free Practice 1: 3rd, 1:20.211
Free Practice 2: 11th, 1:21.186

Takuma Sato
Chassis: BAR Honda 007-05
Free Practice 1: 8th, 1:21.582
Free Practice 2: 19th, 1:22.795

-bar-