2007 ITALIAN GRAND PRIX
MONZA - FREE PRACTICE
Free practice for this weekend's Italian Grand Prix got underway
in warm and sunny conditions in Monza this morning. In low
downforce trim to suit the characteristics of this circuit,
both of the Honda Racing F1 Team's RA107s ran through a straightforward
Friday programme and made an encouraging start to the weekend.
Track conditions were a little slippery when practice started
this morning and, as a result, neither Rubens Barrichello
nor Jenson Button completed many laps during the first hour.
Once some rubber had been laid on the racing line, they began
their tyre comparison and set-up programmes. Jenson completed
21 laps during the first session and his best time of 1:23.668s
placed him sixth overall. Rubens ended the session 0.9s shy
of his team-mate, having completed 19 laps.
By the afternoon session, the ambient temperature had increased
to 29 degrees and the track temperature to 35 degrees, which
resulted in lap times generally being slower than they had
been in the morning. Jenson completed 36 laps and finished
the day in 13th place, with a best time of 1:24.137s, while
Rubens completed 40 laps to end up in 15th place, with a time
of 1:24.462s.
JENSON BUTTON
"A pretty straightforward Friday in terms of our programme.
This morning the balance seemed quite encouraging and we got
off to a reasonable start. This afternoon we concentrated
on doing long runs to evaluate the tyres as well as some more
specific set-up work. The balance wasn't as good as this morning,
especially on the new tyres, so we need to have a look at
the data now and work out why."
RUBENS BARRICHELLO
"This morning we had a big deficit in terms of straight
line speed, so this afternoon we tried a number of changes
and have found some improvements. The set-up and balance also
felt better this afternoon so we are making progress, but
there is still a lot of work to achieve tonight and tomorrow
morning."
JACKY EECKELAERT
Engineering Director
"After last week's test here in Monza we our set-up work
was more straightforward than usual as the track conditions
were similar. We concentrated on fine-tuning the car balance
for the race conditions with both Prime and Option tyres.
Both cars ran our modified front and rear suspension and we
will maintain this configuration for the race on Sunday."
FREE PRACTICE STATS
Drivers Car No. Chassis No. Free Practice 1 Free Practice
2
Jenson Button 7 RA107-04 21 laps 01:23.668 P6 36 laps 01:24.137
P13
Rubens Barrichello 8 RA107-05 19 laps 01:24.564 P12 40 laps
01:24.462 P15
Weather Warm and sunny
Temperatures Air: 20-30°C Track: 18-42°C
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