23/10/2004
NEWS STORY
Lucky Strike BAR Honda drivers Jenson Button and Takuma Sato will start tomorrow's season finale - the Brazilian Grand Prix - from row three of the grid after posting the 5th and 6th fastest laps in today's final qualifying session of the 2004 season.
The weather was hot and sunny for the crucial one-lap session, for which Jenson left the pitlane 10th in line whilst his team-mate was the 15th man out on the track. The glorious sunshine could well give way to a heavy downpour tomorrow when the Brazilian spectators can look forward to a thrilling race in prospect.
Jenson Button: "Considering the lap, P5 isn't too bad, as I expected to be further back than that. In the final session I made a mistake in the second sector though when I got a bit of oversteer through turn five, which cost me quite a bit of time. Nevertheless, I think we can expect a strong race tomorrow and we'll all be doing our best to end the season on a high note and secure that all-important championship position we've worked so hard for this season."
Takuma Sato: "The car was a bit twitchy into turns one and two and I was losing grip. I possibly needed a harder outlap to achieve the right temperature for the grip required at the start of the lap, but the rest of the run was quite strong so I am reasonably happy. 6th place isn't the best result but here we have good overtaking opportunities and I hope our strategy is strong. It will be a tough race but I am very much looking forward to it."
David Richards, Team Principal: "The last qualifying session of the year and another very solid result by both drivers. All eyes will be on the sky tomorrow as we wait to see if the rain arrives prior to the race, which appears to be a distinct possibility. Regardless, it's the end of the season and let's just hope it's a great race for the spectators and TV audience to round off what, for BAR, has been a quite exceptional year."
Geoffrey Willis, Technical Director: "After this morning's running we were expecting to qualify a little better than the third row, nevertheless we are confident of racing well tomorrow. Jenson had the more obvious problems in qualifying when he found the car balance had changed too much to oversteer from pre-qualifying. The cars have continued to be very reliable throughout the weekend and although the bumpy circuit will make tomorrow's race hard on the drivers, it will be the consistency of our tyre performance that will determine our performance. As always our target is to finish both cars in the points and to get on the podium."
Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development: "Both drivers have done a good job to qualify near the front which will allow us to fight for another podium finish. As it is the last race of the season we want to have a strong race to maintain our momentum into the off season."