Monaco GP: Honda Thursday practice notes

HONDA-POWERED DAVIDSON SPLITS FERRARI DUO IN MONACO
Davidson, Button and Sato second, sixth and seventh fastest in Thursday free practice

Anthony Davidson's sublime handling of his B.A.R Honda 006 around the streets of Monte Carlo today saw the Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda third driver set the second fastest time this afternoon in preparation for the Monaco Grand Prix this Sunday. Race drivers Jenson Button and Takuma Sato finished the afternoon sixth and seventh respectively.

Davidson clearly relished his first visit to the glamorous principality, setting the initial pace this morning, and going on to clock a superb 1m15.141s this afternoon to secure P2, splitting the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello.

Jenson Button and Takuma Sato were also on form in the millionaire's playground, Button finishing the afternoon sixth with a time of 1m15.520s. Having shown all but Michael Schumacher the way this morning, Sato finished the afternoon seventh with a best time of 1m15.664s.

In warm and sunny conditions the Ferrari pairing of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello finished first and third in the afternoon session, sandwiching B.A.R Honda's Anthony Davidson, who was just four tenths of a second off the German. Renault's Jarno Trulli and McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen took the fourth and fifth slots while the B.A.R Honda duo of Jenson Button and Takuma Sato finished sixth and seventh followed by Ricardo Zonta (Toyota) in eighth.

Anthony Davidson Position: 2nd

"I've had a really positive debut here today and I'm very pleased with our performance. It's a fairly tough circuit generally - and quite daunting for the first few laps - but I was really looking forward to getting out there. It's one of those circuits that really moves you as a driver and perhaps more than any other circuit I would really love to be driving here for the rest of the weekend. I'll settle for the fact that I've done a race distance here today to help prepare for what I'm sure will be a great race for Jenson and Taku."

Jenson Button Position: 6th

"I think we should feel very happy with what we have achieved today and we're certainly looking good for a strong weekend. We have run three cars with mo major problems and achieved everything we needed to, particularly with Anthony who has done a great job today. We still have a lot of work to do to go through all the data we have acquired from all three cars. As we all know, qualifying well is crucial here and we have to ensure that tomorrow morning's sessions give us the maximum preparation for that. Generally though I think it will be a very interesting weekend."

Takuma Sato Position: 7th

"I'm very pleased from a personal point of view and the team has made a good start to the weekend. All three cars were the top performers in my opinion and we all made good progress towards the race. So I am very happy with our performance today and I enjoy driving here in Monaco. It is a very encouraging start and obviously we now need to concentrate on the performance and tyres for tomorrow because qualifying is so important here."

Shuhei Nakamoto - Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development

"Although it is only the first day I think that the times we have done today can allow us to be very optimistic for the remainder of the weekend. After Barcelona it is important that we get our momentum back and try to get one of the guys on the podium."

-honda-