2006 BRAZILIAN GRAND PRIX INTERLAGOS
QUALIFYING
The Honda Racing F1 Team will start the 2006 season finale
from the third and seventh rows of the grid after Rubens Barrichello
and Jenson Button qualified fifth and 14th for tomorrow's
Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo.
Both drivers made it through the first knock-out round, despite
an electronic problem for Jenson at the end of Q1, which seriously
affected the traction control.
From there, with a well-balanced car beneath him, local hero
Rubens sailed through to the final ten-car shoot-out. Having
set the tone for a positive day with a strong showing in free
practice this morning, he maintained the momentum to deliver
a polished performance and a lap that was good for P5. He
will line up on the clean side of the track in the thick of
the action for the start of the 71-lap race, in front of his
legions of Brazilian fans.
On the opposite side of the garage, the team tried to fix
the electronic problem with Jenson's car but it persisted
when he returned to the track for Q2. He was unable to achieve
a good lap, which brought his session to an early and disappointing
conclusion.
RUBENS BARRICHELLO
"I'm very happy - it's been a good day. The team has
done a great job to get the car back to where it belongs after
the issues that we had during practice yesterday. I was able
to extract everything out of the car today and my last lap
was really good, so I have to be happy with that. I'm looking
forward to the race tomorrow as we have a good strategy, plus
we have two Brazilians in the top five which is very good
for our home race."
JENSON BUTTON
"We had a good car today so it's very disappointing to
have the electronic problem and be starting the final race
of the year from 14th on the grid. The issue affected the
traction control massively and the car was undriveable at
the end of Q1. The team tried to address the problem but there
was only time for a quick fix and it didn't solve it. I obviously
wanted to end the season on a high and we had a good opportunity
to do that but now we'll have a bit of a battle on our hands
to fight our way through the field."
GIL DE FERRAN
Sporting Director
"We are happy on the one hand and disappointed on the
other. Rubens had a smooth qualifying session and pulled out
all the stops in front of his home crowd, extracting all the
speed we had in the car today. Jenson had an electronic issue
that was costing him a lot of time and as a result he was
unable to make it through to the final shoot-out. Assuming
that we are able to fix the problem, the full extent of which
has yet to be determined, we should have a strong race tomorrow
given that both drivers are very happy with the car handling
and have been competitive throughout the weekend so far. It
should be an exciting race!"
QUALIFYING STATS
Drivers Car No. Chassis Free Practice 3 Qualifying 1 Qualifying
2 Qualifying 3
Rubens Barrichello 11 RA106-01 P6 P9 1:12.017 P8 1:11.578
P5 01:11.619
Jenson Button 12 RA106-05 P3 P13 1:12.085 P14 1:11.742 Did
not qualify
Weather Fine and dry
Qualifying Temps Air: 21-22°C Track: 29-37°C
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