2006 MONACO GRAND PRIX
MONTE CARLO - FREE PRACTICE
The Honda Racing F1 Team's third driver Anthony Davidson
ended both of today's free practice sessions in 2nd position,
despite his second session being curtailed halfway through
when he locked up his front left wheel and hit the tyre barrier
at St Devote. Until that point Anthony had been demonstrating
that the RA106 is working well here this weekend as he conducted
the majority of the Honda team's running this morning and
completed the most laps of all of the drivers.
This afternoon, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello took
over the tyre comparison work to end the day as the 6th and
10th fastest race drivers, whilst also getting a taste of
just how frenetic tomorrow's qualifying session is likely
to prove as this tight and twisty street circuit gets its
first taste of the new shoot-out system.
ANTHONY DAVIDSON
"I'm obviously extremely disappointed to end the day
like this after running so well to end both sessions in 2nd
position. I made a small mistake when I locked up the inside
front, hit the barrier at turn 1 and this unfortunately created
a lot of damage to the left front of the car. Up until that
point the day had gone very well and the car was feeling really
good, so it was a shame that we were unable to complete the
tyre comparison. I love driving here and I think both qualifying
and the race will be very exciting."
JENSON BUTTON
"It's been tough all day today and the lap time hasn't
been there. On the last run we changed the set-up and it seemed
to improve the car quite a bit. What you need at this circuit
is confidence and I'm getting more and more confident with
the set-up of the car here. We still need to work on our competitiveness
for qualifying because we are not there yet."
RUBENS BARRICHELLO
"I think today has shown that it is going to be very
hectic in qualifying this weekend with the traffic. Apart
from that the car is running well. It's not fast enough at
the moment; I'm lacking a lot of traction and we need to work
on our race pace. I'm quite confident that the car is quick
and we just need to make sure that it's fast enough for Sunday
now."
GIL DE FERRAN
Sporting Director
"Anthony was quite fast over both a short and a long
run, especially if you consider how early in the session he
achieved his fastest lap. However, as a result of his accident
we were unable to complete the whole programme that had been
planned for him. Overall we still collected plenty of information
to help make a decision on the tyres and to improve the race
cars before Saturday. Today also gave us a taste of how hectic
and exciting qualifying is going to be!"
SHUHEI NAKAMOTO
Management Board Member - Honda Racing F1 Team, Engineering
Director - Honda Racing Development
"It was a fairly normal Friday for us - if you can ever
call Monaco normal! This is the second weekend for both race
drivers' engines but despite that we have done a lot of laps
and have generally been competitive. It was a shame for Anthony
to miss out on the chance for Friday pole but he did a lot
of laps and helped us to gain vital data."
FREE PRACTICE STATS
Drivers Car No. Chassis Free Practice 1 Free Practice 2
Rubens Barrichello 11 RA106-01 12 laps 01:18.406 P10 24 laps
01:17.456 P13
Jenson Button 12 RA106-04 12 laps 01:18.329 P9 20 laps 01:16.903
P9
Anthony Davidson 36 RA106-03 31 laps 01:16.872 P2 15 laps
01:16.075 P2
Weather Warm and sunny
Temperatures Air: 22-25°C Track: 28-47°C
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