2006 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX SUZUKA
QUALIFYING
The Honda Racing F1 Team's home crowd will see Jenson Button
and Rubens Barrichello line up on the 4th row of the grid
at Suzuka tomorrow after they qualified 7th and 8th for the
Japanese Grand Prix.
After yesterday's downpour, today's weather conditions were
fine and dry, although a gusty wind was making car handling
inconsistent. In this morning's free practice, Jenson posted
the 3rd fastest lap and was the quickest Michelin runner on
track. Rubens was less happy with the balance of his car and
switched to the T-car chassis for the start of the qualifying
hour.
Both drivers eased their way through session one but the
second shoot-out was a much more tense affair as there were
several surprise casualties in the dying seconds. Jenson moved
up to 4th and Rubens' lap was good for 10th position, securing
his place in the final session.
The final 15 minutes highlighted the differences between
cars and strategies at this circuit and Jenson and Rubens
qualified in 7th and 8th places, the second fastest pairing
on Michelin tyres.
JENSON BUTTON
"I would obviously have liked to be further up the grid
here but we made the best of what we had today. On low fuel
the car was very good but as soon as we put the fuel in we
were struggling for rear grip. For some reason, in these windy
conditions, the car doesn't work so well but we're expecting
it to be a lot calmer tomorrow. I think it will be a tough
race but I know we will have tremendous support from the Honda
fans out there and we will do everything we can to secure
a good result."
RUBENS BARRICHELLO
"I would like to thank all the boys for doing a tremendous
job. When the circumstances are not working in your favour
it's very difficult, but we have done the best job we can.
Thanks to the hard work of the team I was able to qualify
well inside the top ten today. This is obviously our home
race so we will be giving it everything we have tomorrow in
order to secure the best possible result and to put on a good
show for our home crowd."
GIL DE FERRAN
Sporting Director
"Our results in this session were satisfactory. In the
end we were the second fastest team on Michelins so far this
weekend and we are in a good place for the start of the race.
Given the issues that Rubens was having this morning, we elected
to change him to the spare chassis. As a result he was much
happier and fought hard to secure his place in the top ten.
Jenson was very fast throughout qualifying and got everything
out of the car this afternoon. We shall see how the different
strategies play out tomorrow but hopefully we can put on a
good show in front of Honda's many fans!"
QUALIFYING STATS
Drivers Car No. Chassis Free Practice 3 Qualifying 1 Qualifying
2 Qualifying 3
Rubens Barrichello 11 RA106-01 P18 P14 01:31.972 P10 01:30.598
P8 01:31.478
Jenson Button 12 RA106-05 P3 P5 01:30.847 P4 01:30.268 P7
01:30.992
Weather Fine and dry
Qualifying Temperatures Air: 23-25°C Track: 25-31°C
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