2006 FRENCH GRAND PRIX
MAGNY COURS - FREE PRACTICE
The Honda Racing F1 Team had a mixed start to its French
Grand Prix weekend during Free Practice at Magny Cours today.
As usual, third driver Anthony Davidson conducted most of
the Friday running, ending the first session 2nd fastest.
Jenson took to the track for a short run at the end of the
first session, finishing 3rd on the timesheets, with Rubens
observing from the garage for the morning.
In the afternoon session Rubens clipped the kerb with the
right rear tyre on entry to turn four which spun him into
the wall, bringing his running to a premature conclusion.
Anthony and Jenson had a more productive afternoon, completing
37 laps and 18 laps respectively to complete the majority
of the tyre and set-up work in preparation for the rest of
the weekend.
ANTHONY DAVIDSON
"A good day's work today. It was a typical Friday schedule
really, making the decision on the tyres for the weekend.
I felt the choice was fairly straightforward today and we
will have a good balance for the race if it is in similar
conditions. I'm confident that the tyres will hold up and
produce good lap times during the long runs. The second session
was hotter this afternoon and track conditions were a little
bit worse, with the wind getting up also, so everyone struggled
for lap times compared to this morning."
RUBENS BARRICHELLO
"This afternoon I was going quite well with the tyres
on my first run but I seemed to have some oversteer. Going
into turn four, I got a little bit of the right kerb, the
car touched the ground and I spun into the wall, which ended
my afternoon. Even in the short time that I was on track,
the car was nice to drive and it feels competitive, so we
will look at the data from Anthony and Jenson this evening
and work to find the right set-up for the weekend based on
that."
JENSON BUTTON
"It was a difficult day for a lot of people today due
to the amount of graining on the front tyres. We spent most
of the second session trying to balance the graining so I
couldn't collect as much data as we would have hoped. However
we're really lucky that we have Anthony out there on Fridays
as he was able to run both tyres and provide us with some
very useful information. That will really help us this weekend
with the tyre choice and set-up. We've got a lot of work to
do tonight and in the morning so let's wait and see how the
car is looking in practice tomorrow."
GIL DE FERRAN
Sporting Director
"Despite the fact that we didn't get all the running
we had planned today due to Rubens' incident, we did get enough
data to be able to make informed decisions as far as the tyres
and the car set-up are concerned. A good start to the weekend
for us although we need to continue to improve the car balance
to remain competitive during the rest of the weekend."
FREE PRACTICE STATS
Drivers Car No. Chassis Free Practice 1 Free Practice 2
Rubens Barrichello 11 RA106-01 No laps 5 laps 01:19.259 P17
Jenson Button 12 RA106-05 4 laps 01:18.160 P3 18 laps 01:19.005
P12
Anthony Davidson 36 RA106-03 29 laps 01:17.133 P2 37 laps
01:17.750 P3
Weather Hot and sunny
Temperatures Air: 28-36°C Track: 40-54°C
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