The Honda Racing F1 Team had a mixed start to its French Grand Prix weekend during Free Practice at Magny Cours today.

As usual, third driver Anthony Davidson conducted most of the Friday running, ending the first session 2nd fastest. Jenson took to the track for a short run at the end of the first session, finishing 3rd on the timesheets, with Rubens observing from the garage for the morning.

In the afternoon session Rubens clipped the kerb with the right rear tyre on entry to turn four which spun him into the wall, bringing his running to a premature conclusion. Anthony and Jenson had a more productive afternoon, completing 37 laps and 18 laps respectively to complete the majority of the tyre and set-up work in preparation for the rest of the weekend.

Anthony Davidson: "A good day's work today. It was a typical Friday schedule really, making the decision on the tyres for the weekend. I felt the choice was fairly straightforward today and we will have a good balance for the race if it is in similar conditions. I'm confident that the tyres will hold up and produce good lap times during the long runs. The second session was hotter this afternoon and track conditions were a little bit worse, with the wind getting up also, so everyone struggled for lap times compared to this morning."

Rubens Barrichello: "This afternoon I was going quite well with the tyres on my first run but I seemed to have some oversteer. Going into turn four, I got a little bit of the right kerb, the car touched the ground and I spun into the wall, which ended my afternoon. Even in the short time that I was on track, the car was nice to drive and it feels competitive, so we will look at the data from Anthony and Jenson this evening and work to find the right set-up for the weekend based on that."

Jenson Button: "It was a difficult day for a lot of people today due to the amount of graining on the front tyres. We spent most of the second session trying to balance the graining so I couldn't collect as much data as we would have hoped. However we're really lucky that we have Anthony out there on Fridays as he was able to run both tyres and provide us with some very useful information. That will really help us this weekend with the tyre choice and set-up. We've got a lot of work to do tonight and in the morning so let's wait and see how the car is looking in practice tomorrow."

Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director: "Despite the fact that we didn't get all the running we had planned today due to Rubens' incident, we did get enough data to be able to make informed decisions as far as the tyres and the car set-up are concerned. A good start to the weekend for us although we need to continue to improve the car balance to remain competitive during the rest of the weekend."

To check out our Magny Cours Friday gallery, click here