Hungarian GP: Honda Friday qualifying notes

HONDAS KEEP CLOSE COMPANY IN HUNGARY
Button and Villeneuve finish 13th and 14th in First Qualifying

Lucky Strike B*A*R Honda's Jenson Button set the 13th fastest time in today's first qualifying session for the Hungarian Grand Prix while Jacques Villeneuve finished 14th.

Warm and sunny conditions were the order of the day in Budapest this morning (air 28, track 32 degrees) as the drivers made their way on to the slightly modified track for the first free practice session. The pit straight has been extended by 250 metres, the first corner has been tightened and turn 11 is now a low gear corner. B*A*R Honda's Jenson Button and Jacques Villeneuve completed 49 laps between them, finishing 13th and 14th overall at the end of the morning.

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was first out of the pits onto the Hungaroring as he is top of the drivers' championship. The track temperature increased by almost ten degrees and the weather remained superb. Button took to the track ninth in the running order for his one flying lap and set a time of 1m24.313s, finishing 13th overall.

Villeneuve was out on track 15th for his qualifying lap. The Canadian finished 14th overall, setting a time of 1m24.333s. For final qualifying tomorrow Villeneuve and Button will take to the track in seventh and eighth position respectively.

Jarno Trulli (Renault) set a fastest lap of 1m22.358s around the 4.384km/2.724 miles circuit, followed by Ralf Schumacher (Williams) and Jaguar's Mark Webber. McLaren's David Coulthard and Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello finished fourth and fifth while Fernando Alonso (Renault) completes the top six positions.

Shuhei Nakamoto - Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development:

"Once again the times are pretty close today and the increasing track temperature made for an interesting session. Our guys definitely could have finished higher and I think we'll be up there tomorrow which is when it really counts."

Jenson Button Position: 13th

"That was a very bad qualifying for me. We changed some settings following practice this morning and it worked against us. We switched to a lot less traction control for the session and the result was no rear grip and a lot of oversteer, as you could see in the slide through the first corner. I've lost a lot of time and we've made things harder for ourselves tomorrow, but at least we know which direction we have to go in from here. The track, as always, is very dusty and it doesn't tend to improve a great deal as the weekend progresses, so it's going to be tough but we can definitely improve from here. Following the track changes it will be interesting to see if are any more overtaking possibilities."

Jacques Villeneuve Position: 14th:

"That was not a very good lap. I didn't manage to keep the front tyres working for the last three corners of the lap but then I couldn't get the rear tyres to work for the first part of the lap, so I think we are going to find it difficult to make the car work for a full lap in qualifying. It was important not to make mistakes today because the first few cars tomorrow will have a slow and slippery track. It's a very dirty circuit and the balance changed quite a lot from this morning but that's life. In terms of the changes they've made to the circuit I like the last part of the track but in my opinion the first section was better to drive before. I think the changes should make the circuit better for overtaking opportunities though."

-honda-