French GP: BAR Friday practice notes

BAR's triple attack endured a battering from intermittent heavy rain on the opening day of the French Grand Prix -- but they weathered the storm to emerge in a positive frame of mind about their prospects. Anthony Davidson was third quickest in the second free practice session, when teams did most of their significant running, and was also one of the fastest drivers on wet tyres in the morning.

Jenson Button was right on his tail in the afternoon -- just one tenth adrift -- while Takuma Sato focused on gathering tyre data and did not set a representatively competitive time. Because of the conditions, stewards have given drivers a period of grace with regard to tyre compound selection for the race. They have been given until midday Saturday, rather than Friday evening, to finalise their nomination.

Anthony Davidson:

"The rain has been a little frustrating today but not entirely unexpected. We haven't been able to get anywhere near as much running as we'd hoped but sufficient dry running for what is likely to be a dry but cool weekend ahead. The car felt good in all conditions and I was comfortable pushing hard all day. Once again it feels good to be the fastest of the third drivers today and P3 in the second session."

Jenson Button:

"We normally run a longer programme, but there have been such changeable weather conditions, with a lot of stopping and starting, so we haven't achieved all we had hoped for. Luckily we got all three cars out in the dry and we can choose our tyres after tomorrow's free practice. I think that we have a good tyre, and the car really feels good. We just need to make a few adjustments to the set-up and I think that we will be up there tomorrow pushing hard with Ferrari."

Takuma Sato:

"We were not able to do much running due to the changeable weather but we were at least able to run our dry tyre session which will be useful considering that the rest of the weekend is expected to be dry. We had a productive test at Jerez, so we are confident for tomorrow and we now have to see what the weather brings in order to make our tyre choice somewhat later than usual after free practice tomorrow. I am really looking forward to another strong weekend like we had at Indianapolis."

David Richards, Team Principal:

"The weather we have experienced today is what we would usually expect next weekend for the British Grand Prix and has resulted in rather frustrating and fruitless testing, as it is expected to be dry for the race on Sunday. Nonetheless, the short dry running we got suggests that we should be very competitive."

Geoffrey Willis, Technical Director:

"It has been very difficult to draw strong conclusions from either of today's sessions since the conditions changed from fully wet to fully dry several times. Despite this we have had no problems with the cars and all three drivers were happy with the balance in all conditions. We now have the opportunity to delay our tyre choice until after tomorrow's free practice running and we are optimistic about the weekend ahead."

Shuhei Nakamoto -- Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development

"I was pleased to see that our drivers were quick in such changeable weather conditions. It doesn't worry me that we haven't done too much dry running today as everyone is in the same position."

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