US GP: Honda Saturday qualifying notes

HONDAS KEEP CLOSE COMPANY AT THE BRICKYARD
Button and Villeneuve qualify 11th and 12th for US Grand Prix

B*A*R Honda's Jenson Button qualified in 11th place for tomorrow's grid of the US Grand Prix to start the race from the sixth row while team-mate Jacques Villeneuve will start alongside him in 12th place.

The majority of yesterday's dark clouds had cleared at Indianapolis by the time Minardi's Jos Verstappen made his way on to the dry track to kick off this afternoon's final qualifying session. The air temperature rose to 19 degrees, about three degrees warmer than yesterday.

Villeneuve went out fifth to complete his one flying lap, just over ten minutes in to the session. The Canadian put in a tidy lap and recorded a time of 1m13.050s, finally qualifying in 12th position for tomorrow's race.

Button took to the track 11th in the running order, half way through the session, the temperature having lowered to 16 degrees. The Briton recorded a time of 1m12.695s, putting him just ahead of his team-mate. Button's time qualified him in 11th place on the grid after all the runs were completed.

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen snatched pole position from Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello, who will be followed on the second row by Olivier Panis (Toyota). The Williams pairing of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher will start from fourth and fifth while Renault's Fernando Alonso will line up in sixth position on the grid.

Shuhei Nakamoto - Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development:

"Both drivers put in decent laps this afternoon. We're just outside the top ten - the times are really tight and it was a very close session. We're in with a shout tomorrow and I'm sure Jacques and Jenson will be fighting hard to pick up some more points."

Jenson Button Position: 11th

"We finally got on top of the set-up with my car this morning and it was working reasonably well. By the time we got to warm-up, the wind had picked up and the track temperature had increased and like most people I found myself with a different car. It wasn't too bad in qualifying; the balance was there but we're still finding grip hard to come by. I think we'll be quite strong in the race and we'll be fighting for valuable points."

Jacques Villeneuve Position: 12th

"We've had some trouble with the driveability of the car this weekend, mainly due to lack of grip, and this morning it was very close to being undriveable. It was a little better in warm-up then we made some changes prior to qualifying, which is always a bit of a gamble. It helped the car a lot and finally I had grip. There was still some time left in it because that's the first lap I've done all weekend where the car has been working well. The car will be good for the race but if we had found the set-up much earlier we would be a few tenths quicker than we are now."

-honda-