Jenson Button

Jens with Florance

Terrible day for Honda

07 April 2007

The Honda Racing F1 Team drivers endured a difficult qualifying at Sepang today with Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello ending the session in 15th and 19th positions respectively.

Given the performance issues it has experienced here this weekend, the team was realistic about the challenge of today's qualifying session, but was disappointed that both cars were unable to make it through to Q2. A gearbox problem with Barrichello's race car confined it to the garage at the start of the hour-long session, forcing a last-minute switch to the spare car, which was not set-up for him. Q1 was therefore an even bigger struggle than anticipated.

Jenson Button said: "I'm obviously very frustrated. We know where we are at the moment and we're doing the best with what we have, but qualifying 15th is still difficult to accept. We made it through to Q2 but the car isn't good enough to get us through to the final session at the moment. It was unbelievable how much grip I lost towards the end of the second session. So, we start from the second half of the grid and we'll have to see what the race brings, but this is always a tough race and tomorrow will be no exception."

Rubens Barrichello said: "There is very little I can say, I am so disappointed. Given our current performance level, qualifying well was always going to be a struggle, but to find myself where I am is so frustrating. Immediately before the session we had the problem with my race car, so I had to switch to the spare car. That car wasn't set up for me so in many ways it was like starting from the beginning again. At least by the end of free practice today my race car was well-balanced but obviously I wasn't able to benefit from the small improvement we had made with that car this morning, which is very frustrating. Obviously starting from the back of the grid tomorrow I can only see what opportunities arise in the race and that is the best we can expect."

Jacky Eeckelaert, Honda's technical engineer, said: "Jenson's 15th place qualifying position is disappointing but unfortunately it reflects the current performance level of the car. Rubens' position is obviously even more frustrating and less reflective of the car's current capabilities. We found a gearbox problem on his race car shortly before the start of qualifying and we had to switch to the spare car, which is unfortunate as he had found a good balance this morning and this had put him closer to the pace of Jenson. Tomorrow will be a tough race and we now have to hope that the good work we did on Friday on race set-up can give us some possibilities to improve during the race."

Florance

Jenson & Christian Klien

Race

1 F. Alonso McLaren 1:32:14.930

2 L. Hamilton McLaren + 17.557

3 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 18.319

4 N. Heidfeld BMW + 33.777

5 F. Massa Ferrari + 36.705

6 G. Fisichella Renault + 1:05.638

7 J. Trulli Toyota + 1:10.132

8 H. Kovalainen Renault + 1:12.015

9 A. Wurz Williams + 1:28.924

10 M. Webber Red Bull + 1:33.556

11 R. Barrichello Honda + 1 laps

12 J. Button Honda + 1 laps

13 T. Sato Super Aguri + 1 laps

14 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps

15 R. Schumacher Toyota + 1 laps

16 A. Davidson Super Aguri + 1 laps

17 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps

18 R. Kubica BMW + 1 laps

Did not finish

19 N. Rosberg Williams + 14 laps

20 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 20 laps

21 C. Albers Spyker F1 + 49 laps

22 A. Sutil Spyker F1 + 56 laps

Honda keeps it together for race

08 April 2007

Honda Racing F1 Team drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button ended today's Malaysian Grand Prix just outside the top ten in 11th and 12th places respectively. After a tough weekend for the team, today's race saw a slight improvement, particularly as Rubens started from the pitlane.

After incurring an engine-change penalty following a switch to the spare car for qualifying, Rubens reverted back to his preferred car for the race. The short first stint of a two-stop strategy allowed him to leapfrog many competitors and recover well from yesterday's disappointing qualifying performance. "We can never be happy finishing 11th but compared with what we had in qualifying yesterday I guess we have had a reasonable race today," said Barrichello. "For the last two race weekends we've had a bad qualifying and then the races have shown that we could have been closer to the points had we not suffered on Saturdays. For the next race our focus has to be on improving our qualifying performance and that's all we can do to move forward for now."

Jenson's race was blighted by contact from Sutil at turn four on the opening lap and a lack of rear grip in the first two stints. A front wing adjustment improved the car for the final stint and he went on to climb back up to within 0.7secs of his team-mate at the chequered flag.

"A tough race, as we expected," said Button after the race. "I had a pretty terrible first stint. Sutil drove over the side of my car and there was some damage, although how much of a difference that made I don't know. During the first two stints I was suffering massively due to lack of rear grip. We came down quite a bit with the front wing level for the final stint, went miles forward on the brake bias and took some pressure out of the tyres to improve things slightly. We were still only 12th but after yesterday we can consider this a small step forward."

Button: Honda working hard on improvements

10 April 2007

In 2006 Jenson Button scored his maiden victory in Formula 1. It seemd the Briton finally got himself a competitive car and hoped he could build in that in 2007. So far the score after two races: zero points. But Button remains positive as the team works hard on improvements for the car.

"There's a lot happening back at the factory," Button told The Times. "It's actually very exciting. It's not a position any of us want to be in — so far back — but it's really exciting back at the base.

"There is so much going on, so many new ideas, so many things going into the wind tunnel. It's all very positive. It's a pity we didn't realise earlier what our issues were."

Thank you LuNo

I love Jenson

I don't like her :yuckky:

You're welcome Rani