Spanish GP: Honda Saturday qualifying notes

The Honda Racing F1 Team's Rubens Barrichello cemented a good start to his Spanish Grand Prix challenge today, posting the 5th fastest time of this afternoon's qualifying session. He will line up on the 3rd row of the grid for the start of tomorrow's 66 lap race at the Circuit de Catalunya.

On the opposite side of the garage, a promising start to the qualifying session turned to disappointment for Jenson Button as he picked up a lot of unexpected understeer on his final run and was unable to improve on the 8th fastest time.

Rubens Barrichello:

"Obviously I'm very happy with my qualifying position. I think I extracted the maximum out of the car today. It is quite difficult to beat the other two teams at the moment so we just have to concentrate on what we have now and make the best of every opportunity during the race. I'm quite happy with what we have achieved today and I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

Jenson Button:

"I'm extremely disappointed to qualify in 8th position. The car balance was fine until I asked for a little more front wing. Normally you would expect to get a better front end on the car but I had massive understeer, far more than we would have expected. We'll have to look at the data to see what the problem is and hopefully address it in time for tomorrow."

Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director:

"We have mixed emotions regarding today's qualifying session. It all went smoothly for Rubens, who had a great run to put the car in 5th position on the grid. Jenson on the other hand was going similarly well, but unexpectedly he picked up a lot of understeer on his last run on new tyres and this is something we need to investigate. As always there are a lot of unknowns in terms of strategy so we will see what tomorrow brings."

Shuhei Nakamoto, Management Board Member - Honda Racing F1 Team, Engineering Director - Honda Racing Development:

"We were aiming for slightly better starting grid positions overall, but this gives us the chance to fight for points tomorrow. We know we have to keep working hard to improve and give our drivers an even stronger package. No issues to report with either engine."

Rubens Barrichello
Chassis: RA106-01
5th, 1:15.885

Jenson Button
Chassis: RA106-04
8th, 1:16.008

-honda-