30/06/2006
NEWS STORY
The Honda Racing F1 Team's Anthony Davidson was the fastest man on track in Indianapolis today as free practice got underway at the legendary Motor Speedway. He topped the timesheets in both the morning and afternoon sessions and completed a total of 65 laps.
The team's race drivers also made a positive start to their United States Grand Prix weekend, lapping within 0.1 seconds of each other in session one to be fourth and fifth fastest. In session two, the drivers tried different set-ups, with the result that Jenson finished the day eighth and Rubens 18th, split by 0.7 seconds.
Anthony's fastest times celebrated a positive return to Indianapolis for Honda and the Honda Racing F1 Team. Earlier this week, Honda announced plans to build a new automobile plant near Greensburg, Indiana, 50 miles south of Indianapolis. The plant will begin mass production of fuel-efficient 4-cylinder vehicles in the Autumn of 2008, with an annual production capacity of 200,000 vehicles and the creation of 2,000 new jobs. The new plant will grow Honda's employment in North America to more than 37,000 associates.
Anthony Davidson: "It's been a very good day today. We had a very conclusive tyre test so my work is done on that side of things and Michelin have some positive results all round. We also had a trouble free day. I feel much more at home in the car this weekend than I did in Canada and I think everybody in the team has done a great job to make such a good start to the weekend. It's early days yet so we'll see how the rest of the weekend goes, but I'm pleased with the work we have done today."
Rubens Barrichello: "It's been a good Friday, although I don't yet have a good balance on the car. We seem to be a little more competitive than in Canada and I want this to be a much better weekend for us so we'll just keep working hard towards the race on Sunday and see how things go from here."
Jenson Button: "Today has been a positive day and we've made a few changes which have worked out well for us, so overall a good start to the weekend. It's looking better than Montreal did at this stage, thankfully, and it's nice to have a car that feels normal underneath me. We have something we can really work with and keep improving through the rest of the weekend so fingers crossed for tomorrow and the race."
Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director: "This has been quite a good Friday. We were able to complete all the planned running without any major issues and improve the cars throughout the day. It is also nice to have Anthony finish on top of the timesheets again, however there is still a lot of work to do prior to race day. An encouraging start nevertheless. It's good to be back in action at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - a circuit which the whole team enjoys very much and we look forward to putting on a great race for the local crowd."
To check out our Indianapolis practice gallery, click here