Turkish GP: Honda Friday practice notes

Refreshed by his maiden victory in Hungary, Jenson Button was the fastest of the Honda Racing F1 Team drivers today at the conclusion of the first two free practice sessions for Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix. Jenson set the third fastest time of the day whilst third driver Anthony Davidson, running for the first time at the Istanbul Park Circuit, ended the afternoon session fourth. Rubens Barrichello posted the 10th fastest time.

In typically hot conditions in Istanbul it was back to business as usual with Jenson and Rubens focusing on this afternoon's session to fine-tune the car set-up to the demands of this undulating anti-clockwise circuit. The only glitch in an otherwise straightforward day was a failure with Anthony's car at the end of the morning session, the timing of which fortunately minimised the amount of lost running.

Jenson Button:

"I'm pleased with the way today has gone. So we'll sit down with Michelin this evening and discuss which is the better tyre option for the weekend. I had a small mechanical problem at the start of this afternoon's session, which cost me some time when we had to take the floor off, but everything is okay. The changes that we've made over the day have been positive so I'm happy with where we are at the moment."

Anthony Davidson:

"It is my first time here at Istanbul Park so it was really nice to finally drive the circuit. It's quite tough physically as well as technically challenging. It was important to get a good balance for the first lap and also the long runs today, which we were focusing on. The failure in the first session was a shame because I was going really well up until then and setting some really quick laps. Overall the car felt good all day and we have some good data to work on for tomorrow and Sunday."

Rubens Barrichello:

"A pretty straightforward day for us today although this morning I had a few set-up issues. This afternoon the car felt a little better and I'm quite pleased with the balance of the car now. There is some work to do to improve but generally I think we are moving in the right direction."

Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director

"It has been a normal day for us, achieving lots of laps with all three cars and with lots of data to go through tonight. Anthony had an unusual and unexpected failure this morning, the cause of which we are still investigating. Otherwise we spent most of the day making small set-up changes in an effort to adapt our car to the demands of this circuit. Overall a good start to the weekend, with nothing major to report."

Rubens Barrichello
Chassis: RA106-01
Practice session 1: 11th, 5 laps, 1:30.838
Practice session 2: 10th, 16 laps, 1:29.214

Jenson Button
Chassis: RA106-05
Practice session 1: 3rd, 5 laps, 1:28.785
Practice session 2: 3rd, 10 laps, 1:28.506

Anthony Davidson
Chassis: RA106-03
Practice session 1: 5th, 19 laps, 1:29.193
Practice session 2: 4th, 31 laps, 1:28.598

-credit: honda