Jenson Button

Button happy despite missing Q3

Jenson Button was extremely satisfied with his Malaysian Grand Prix performance, despite narrowly missing out on a top ten place.

The Honda driver lapped 0.068 seconds shy of the Q3 cut-off time on the way to 11th place.

"I'm happy with P11 and to be starting on the right side of the grid for the race," Button said.

"The weather was looking changeable with the risk of rain, so we ran early in both sessions to get a banker time in. My final run in the second session was on the option tyres and I'm really happy with the lap as we just missed out on going through by less than 0.1 seconds."

Button said he had been struggling with the softer tyres until track conditions improved.

"The main challenge was choosing between the prime and the option tyre," he said.

"I was struggling to get the options to work so I was running on the primes for most of the session but pretty much everyone else was on the option tyre.

"So with that much option rubber going down on the track, we had to give it a go for my last run in Q2, and we were 0.25 seconds quicker. That was as quick as the car is today and I put in a good lap, so I'm pleased with our position."

Teammate Rubens Barrichello will start 14th, and felt the loss of some practice time to a gearbox fault had been costly.

"It was unfortunate that we had a problem this morning with the gear selection which limited my running and therefore when you go into qualifying, you are playing catch-up all the time," he said.

"However it was a good effort this afternoon and I'm happy with how our session developed to eventually finish in 14th position. It would have been nice to have more time this morning to set the car up a little better but we made the best of a difficult situation."

Grand Prix of Malaysia - 23 March 2008

Race

1 K. Raikkonen 1:31:18.555

2 R. Kubica + 19.570

3 H. Kovalainen + 38.450

4 J. Trulli + 45.832

5 L. Hamilton + 46.548

6 N. Heidfeld + 49.833

7 M. Webber + 1:08.130

8 F. Alonso + 1:10.041

9 D. Coulthard + 1:16.220

10 J. Button + 1:26.214

11 N. Piquet jr. + 1:32.202

12 G. Fisichella + 1 laps

13 R. Barrichello + 1 laps

14 N. Rosberg + 1 laps

15 A. Davidson + 1 laps

16 T. Sato + 2 laps

17 K. Nakajima + 2 laps

Did not finish

18 S. Vettel + 16 laps

19 F. Massa + 26 laps

20 A. Sutil + 50 laps

21 T. Glock + 54 laps

22 S. Bourdais + 56 laps

Malaysian Grand Prix

Malaysian Grand Prix

Malaysian Grand Prix

Malaysian Grand Prix

Malaysian Grand Prix

Malaysian Grand Prix

Top ten for Honda

23 March 2008

Honda achieved a top 10 finish in today's Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang Circuit in Kuala Lumpur. Jenson Button brought his RA108 home in 10th place and team-mate Rubens Barrichello ended the race in 13th position.

"It was good to finish the full race distance today and we will get a lot of very useful information from this weekend," said Button. "I'm pretty satisfied with 10th place as that is where the performance of the car is right now. With the majority of cars ahead of us also finishing, it is a good reflection of our overall position. We're going in the right direction and learning more about the car all the time, so we need to keep up the hard work and continue to develop ahead of the next race in two weeks' time."

Barrichello commented, "Unfortunately my weekend was compromised when we lost the free practice running on Saturday morning, as I lacked balance in the car for the race today. I had a lot of understeer and was battling with that throughout the race. The drive-through penalty after my second stop was unfortunate, even though I only lost one place, as the markings in the pitlane to indicate where the speed limit ends were not clear enough."

Team boss Ross Brawn added, "This weekend was more straightforward for the whole field compared with Melbourne and we saw fewer drivers making mistakes. Sepang is also a more representative circuit in terms of car performance, as Melbourne can produce unusual results. Therefore to see Jenson finish the race in 10th place with Rubens just behind, in spite of his problems in the third free practice session, is very encouraging and a real indication of the car's pace. There is still a great deal of work to do but we are really starting to make improvements one step at a time."

Button aiming for top ten in Bahrain

29 March 2008

Fresh from a strong drive to tenth place in the Malaysian Grand Prix last weekend, Jenson Button goes to Bahrain confident Honda can continue to knock on the door of the top ten.

"We are pleased with our performance so far this season and it was very valuable to complete the full race distance in Malaysia last weekend," Button said. "Our overall position in the midfield pack is encouraging, however we have to make a further step to be competing for points on a regular basis. With no opportunity for testing since the season began, we will be using the data gathered in Australia and Malaysia to maximise our performance at what will be another very hot race in Bahrain. I'm hopeful that we will be knocking on the door of the top ten in qualifying once again."

"I'm a big fan of Bahrain as a country and I also really enjoy the circuit as there are some great fast flowing sections where you can really push the car," he added. "Confidence under braking is the key to a quick lap. You have to believe in the car's performance and have full confidence that you can stop effectively. The sand blowing onto the tarmac can be a challenge as you never know how the grip levels will change."

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Bahrain Grand Prix

1st Free Practice

1 F. Massa 1:32.233 20

2 K. Räikkönen 1:32.350 15

3 N. Rosberg 1:32.415 23

4 L. Hamilton 1:32.705 21

5 H. Kovalainen 1:32.868 20

6 K. Nakajima 1:33.121 24

7 R. Kubica 1:33.333 16

8 J. Trulli 1:33.539 27

9 D. Coulthard 1:33.788 20

10 F. Alonso Renault 1:33.815 19

11 T. Glock 1:33.929 28

12 M. Webber 1:33.950 20

13 N. Piquet jr. 1:33.981 24

14 N. Heidfeld 1:34.106 17

15 S. Bourdais 1:34.235 27

16 S. Vettel 1:34.321 32

17 G. Fisichella 1:34.892 20

18 J. Button 1:34.915 16

19 R. Barrichello 1:35.174 12

20 A. Sutil 1:35.429 22

21 A. Davidson 1:36.145 6

22 T. Sato 1:36.536 6

Bahrain Grand Prix

2nd Free Practice

1 F. Massa 1:31.420 30

2 K. Räikkönen 1:32.327 30

3 H. Kovalainen 1:32.752 30

4 L. Hamilton 1:32.847 26

5 R. Kubica 1:32.915 29

6 N. Rosberg 1:33.022 34

7 D. Coulthard 1:33.048 27

8 K. Nakajima 1:33.098 33

9 S. Bourdais 1:33.197 37

10 N. Piquet jr. 1:33.247 37

11 J. Button 1:33.710 33

12 F. Alonso 1:33.755 26

13 M. Webber 1:33.782 34

14 J. Trulli 1:33.822 38

15 T. Glock 1:33.856 30

16 R. Barrichello 1:33.966 35

17 N. Heidfeld 1:34.023 36

18 G. Fisichella 1:34.388 35

19 A. Sutil 1:34.405 34

20 S. Vettel 1:34.787 30

21 T. Sato 1:35.288 24

22 A. Davidson 1:35.712 25

Bahrain Grand Prix

3rd Free Practice

1 N. Rosberg 1:32.521 17

2 F. Massa 1:32.726 10

3 M. Webber 1:32.742 16

4 J. Trulli 1:32.901 18

5 D. Coulthard 1:32.918 14

6 K. Nakajima 1:33.020 16

7 R. Kubica 1:33.024 18

8 N. Piquet jr. 1:33.074 16

9 K. Räikkönen 1:33.237 10

10 H. Kovalainen 1:33.367 15

11 S. Bourdais 1:33.372 17

12 G. Fisichella 1:33.392 20

13 F. Alonso 1:33.445 13

14 R. Barrichello 1:33.551 18

15 T. Glock 1:33.595 20

16 J. Button 1:33.600 17

17 S. Vettel 1:33.651 14

18 L. Hamilton 1:33.659 14

19 A. Sutil 1:33.857 18

20 N. Heidfeld 1:34.074 16

21 A. Davidson 1:34.591 18

22 T. Sato 1:34.952 16

Bahrain Grand Prix

Qualifying

1 R. Kubica 1:33.096

2 F. Massa 1:33.123

3 L. Hamilton 1:33.292

4 K. Räikkönen 1:33.418

5 H. Kovalainen 1:33.488

6 N. Heidfeld 1:33.737

7 J. Trulli 1:33.994

8 N. Rosberg 1:34.015

9 J. Button 1:35.057

10 F. Alonso 1:35.115

11 M. Webber 1:32.371

12 R. Barrichello 1:32.508

13 T. Glock 1:32.528

14 N. Piquet jr. 1:32.790

15 S. Bourdais 1:32.915

16 K. Nakajima 1:32.943

17 D. Coulthard 1:33.433

18 G. Fisichella 1:33.501

19 S. Vettel 1:33.501

20 A. Sutil 1:33.845

21 A. Davidson 1:34.140

22 T. Sato 1:35.725

Bahrain Grand Prix

Race

1 F. Massa 1:31:06.970

2 K. Räikkönen + 3.339

3 R. Kubica + 4.998

4 N. Heidfeld + 8.409

5 H. Kovalainen + 26.789

6 J. Trulli + 41.314

7 M. Webber + 45.473

8 N. Rosberg + 55.889

9 T. Glock + 1:09.500

10 F. Alonso + 1:17.181

11 R. Barrichello + 1:17.862

12 G. Fisichella + 1 laps

13 L. Hamilton + 1 laps

14 K. Nakajima + 1 laps

15 S. Bourdais + 1 laps

16 A. Davidson + 1 laps

17 T. Sato + 1 laps

18 D. Coulthard + 1 laps

19 A. Sutil + 2 laps

Did not finish

20 N. Piquet jr. + 16 laps

21 J. Button + 37 laps

22 S. Vettel + 57 laps