2006 TURKISH GRAND PRIX
ISTANBUL PARK - FREE PRACTICE
Refreshed by his maiden victory in Hungary, Jenson Button
was the fastest of the Honda Racing F1 Team drivers today
at the conclusion of the first two free practice sessions
for Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix. Jenson set the third fastest
time of the day whilst third driver Anthony Davidson, running
for the first time at the Istanbul Park Circuit, ended the
afternoon session fourth. Rubens Barrichello posted the 10th
fastest time.
In typically hot conditions in Istanbul it was back to business
as usual with Jenson and Rubens focusing on this afternoon's
session to fine-tune the car set-up to the demands of this
undulating anti-clockwise circuit. The only glitch in an otherwise
straightforward day was a failure with Anthony's car at the
end of the morning session, the timing of which fortunately
minimised the amount of lost running.
JENSON BUTTON
"I'm pleased with the way today has gone. So we'll sit
down with Michelin this evening and discuss which is the better
tyre option for the weekend. I had a small mechanical problem
at the start of this afternoon's session, which cost me some
time when we had to take the floor off, but everything is
okay. The changes that we've made over the day have been positive
so I'm happy with where we are at the moment."
ANTHONY DAVIDSON
"It is my first time here at Istanbul Park so it was
really nice to finally drive the circuit. It's quite tough
physically as well as technically challenging. It was important
to get a good balance for the first lap and also the long
runs today, which we were focusing on. The failure in the
first session was a shame because I was going really well
up until then and setting some really quick laps. Overall
the car felt good all day and we have some good data to work
on for tomorrow and Sunday."
RUBENS BARRICHELLO
"A pretty straightforward day for us today although this
morning I had a few set-up issues. This afternoon the car
felt a little better and I'm quite pleased with the balance
of the car now. There is some work to do to improve but generally
I think we are moving in the right direction."
GIL DE FERRAN
Sporting Director
"It has been a normal day for us, achieving lots of laps
with all three cars and with lots of data to go through tonight.
Anthony had an unusual and unexpected failure this morning,
the cause of which we are still investigating. Otherwise we
spent most of the day making small set-up changes in an effort
to adapt our car to the demands of this circuit. Overall a
good start to the weekend, with nothing major to report."
FREE PRACTICE STATS
Drivers Car No. Chassis Free Practice 1 Free Practice 2
Rubens Barrichello 11 RA106-01 5 laps 01:30.838 P11 16 laps
01:29.214 P10
Jenson Button 12 RA106-05 5 laps 01:28.785 P3 10 laps 01:28.506
P3
Anthony Davidson 36 RA106-03 19 laps 01:29.193 P5 31 laps
01:28.598 P4
Weather Hot and sunny
Temperatures Air: 29-32°C Track: 42-51°C
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