2006 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX INDIANAPOLIS 30 JUNE
FREE PRACTICE
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."
FREE PRACTICE STATS
Drivers Car No. Chassis Free Practice 1 Free Practice 2
Rubens Barrichello 11 RA106-01 5 laps 01:13.090 P4 20 laps
01:14.011 P18
Jenson Button 12 RA106-05 6 laps 01:13.189 P5 16 laps 01:13.397
P8
Anthony Davidson 36 RA106-03 27 laps 01:12.083 P1 38 laps
01:12.013 P1
Weather Hot and sunny
Temperatures Air: 27-31°C Track: 39-47°C
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