09/06/2006
NEWS STORY
The Honda Racing F1 Team made a good start to its British Grand Prix weekend today as the first of the free practice sessions got underway on home asphalt at Silverstone.
Third driver Anthony Davidson once again conducted most of the running to end the day 4th fastest. To the delight of the team's many British fans, who are already starting to fill up the grandstands, Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button had a busier afternoon working on car set-up to suit the demands of this high-speed circuit and evaluating the tyre options in the uncharacteristically hot conditions, which have been forecast to remain throughout the weekend. They ended the day 7th and 12th fastest race drivers.
Anthony Davidson: "We had a good day in terms of getting through our planned programme and learning about the two different tyre options that we have here this weekend. I feel I did a good job today in making things run as smoothly as possible and getting some really valuable data to look at tonight. I'm confident in the tyre choice for the weekend already and the car has had a nice balance all day, so overall it's been a good Friday."
Rubens Barrichello: "It was quite a straightforward Friday for us today. We worked solidly through the two sessions without any real problems. We do need to improve the balance as I was happier with it earlier than I was this afternoon, but we will look at the data and work on that later today. Hopefully we can keep moving forward through the rest of the weekend."
Jenson Button: "We've been having very strange track conditions here today and in particular it's very windy, which is causing problems for a lot of the drivers. The balance is not too bad although there is certainly room for improvement, so we'll see what the data tells us this evening."
Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director: "This has been a good Friday for us. We were able to complete all the planned running for the day with the three cars and with no major issues. The track conditions are quite unusual for Silverstone, and we need to continue working on improving the balance of both race cars."
Shuhei Nakamoto, Management Board Member - Honda Racing F1 Team, Engineering Director - Honda Racing Development: "We have had a good day with all the drivers doing quite a lot of laps. Anthony in particular has done a lot of work. Both race drivers are on new engines this weekend which are an upgrade on the ones we used in Monaco."
To check out our Silverstone free practice gallery, click here