30/07/2006
NEWS STORY
The Honda Racing F1 Team's Jenson Button narrowly missed out on a return to the podium today after taking 4th place in this afternoon's German Grand Prix. He drove a committed race to maintain his 4th place starting position, despite running 3rd for much of the middle stint and again in the closing stages.
There were mixed feelings in Hockenheim however after Rubens suffered an engine failure just 18 laps into the race. After a strong showing throughout free practice and qualifying, the team had been hopeful of a points finish for both cars. Nonetheless, Jenson's result earns a further five valuable points for the team who strengthen their 4th place in the Constructors Championship.
Jenson Button: "I had a great race today and the first two stints were very enjoyable. To get past both Renaults at the start and then past Kimi during the race felt very good and I had a lot of fun out there. The last stint was really tough because I had massive amounts of tyre graining on the front left and a lot of rear locking, so I just couldn't fight off Raikkonen. I'm really happy though. We've made a definite step forward here and we've been strong all weekend but we have to continue that into Hungary now which will be hard work. It looks like we're getting back on track though."
Rubens Barrichello: "We made some good progress here this weekend, so it's very disappointing for me that we let that go with a bad start and an engine failure. In the first few laps the car was running well and with the strategy and long run pace we had I think we should have done well today. Not long after my first pit stop the engine caught fire and there was oil on the tyres which caused me to spin and that was the end of my race. I just have to hope that we can carry this progress through to Hungary now because everyone has been working so hard to take this step forward."
Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director: "Jenson achieved a good result for us today. After our strong qualifying performance yesterday, neither car had the best of starts, nevertheless both Jenson and Rubens were able to fight back during the first stint when the cars were handling well. Jenson was fighting hard for a podium, however the car's handling went away in the last stint and there was no way for him to maintain 3rd place. It was disappointing that Rubens had to retire after such a strong weekend. Overall we are happy with 4th place and we come away from Hockenheim encouraged by the improved performance of both cars, the credit for which must go to the whole team who have worked relentlessly on a variety of new developments to both car and engine."
To check out our German GP picture gallery, click here