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Difficult qualifying session for Honda drivers
17 March 2007
The Honda F1 drivers experienced a difficult qualifying session in Melbourne today. Jenson Button ended the day 14th whilst team-mate Rubens Barrichello was knocked-out during the first of the three sessions and will line up 17th for the 58-lap race.
Jenson Button would have hoped for a better weekend in Australia. "It hasn't been a good weekend for us so far," he said. "Today it was difficult to judge how hard to push the tyres. At the start of the lap I was getting understeer because the tyres were not up to temperature, then later in the lap I was getting oversteer as the rears were going off, which just shows the issues that we have. I got the best out of the car today and right now we are where we are. We'll obviously do what we can for the race, then we have some work to do to start addressing the issues we have identified."
Rubens Barrichello was already knocked out in the first qualifying session. Its obviously not something Barrichello can be satisfied with. "I was expecting that we would compete in the second session today so I'm disappointed by our performance in qualifying," the Brazilian commented. "I had a problem right from the start with the car bottoming out much more than it has been at any other point over the weekend. That is something we have to look at for the race tomorrow. It was very close at the end of the first session with so many cars fighting to get through but unfortunately we just couldn't make it this time."

Race
1 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:25:28.770
2 F. Alonso McLaren + 7.242
3 L. Hamilton McLaren + 18.595
4 N. Heidfeld BMW + 38.763
5 G. Fisichella Renault + 1:06.469
6 F. Massa Ferrari + 1:06.805
7 N. Rosberg Williams + 1 laps
8 R. Schumacher Toyota + 1 laps
9 J. Trulli Toyota + 1 laps
10 H. Kovalainen Renault + 1 laps
11 R. Barrichello Honda + 1 laps
12 T. Sato Super Aguri + 1 laps
13 M. Webber Red Bull + 1 laps
14 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps
15 J. Button Honda + 1 laps ![]()
16 A. Davidson Super Aguri + 2 laps
17 A. Sutil Spyker F1 + 2 laps
Did not finish
18 A. Wurz Williams + 10 laps
19 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 10 laps
20 R. Kubica BMW + 22 laps
21 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso + 30 laps
22 C. Albers Spyker F1 + 48 laps