2007 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX FUJI
RACE
The Honda Racing F1 Team's Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello
battled through atrocious weather conditions at Fuji Speedway
today to bring their RA107s home in 10th and 11th positions.
The rain-soaked 67-lap race promised much for the Honda Racing
F1 Team, with Jenson lining up in sixth position on the grid.
But a coming-together with Nick Heidfeld on lap 21, a throttle
problem and a couple of Safety Car periods played against
the Briton and he was eventually forced to park his car on
the final lap after Takuma Sato hit him and broke his suspension.
The race started behind the Safety Car with both cars on
Bridgestone's extreme wet tyres. Despite running under yellow
flags for the early laps, Jenson moved up to fourth place
when the Ferraris ahead of him pitted.
The race went green on lap 20 but at the first corner after
the re-start Jenson was involved in a collision with Heidfeld
and lost his front wing. He encountered a temporary engine
sensor problem which slowed him down on his in-lap and after
pitting he rejoined the race in last place.
Rubens, meanwhile, started in 17th place. He dropped back
to 19th during the early laps, but battled his way through
to 12th by the time of the second Safety Car period on lap
42. Jenson at the same stage of the race was up to 17th.
During this final Safety Car period, the drivers moved up
to eighth and 13th places following incidents involving several
cars ahead of them. Rubens then gained another place when
Massa pitted, but seventh was as high as he climbed because
he was forced to pit for a splash-'n'-dash on lap 60. He emerged
behind Jenson and crossed the line in 10th place.
RUBENS BARRICHELLO
"I'm obviously disappointed that our strategy did not
work out today but to be honest, in my view, the race should
have been stopped very early on. The conditions were so difficult
and it was impossible to see anything for the entire race.
We tried to work the conditions to our advantage but the decisions
did not work out today. We will put this race behind us now
and focus on next weekend in China."
JENSON BUTTON
"It's hugely frustrating that we weren't able to take
advantage of our strong qualifying performance in the race
today. The conditions and visibility were so bad that it felt
really dangerous out there and it was really difficult to
keep the tyres warm enough to be effective. I had already
lost my front wing after a coming-together with Heidfeld,
then I had an engine sensor problem which put me back in last
place. I had to come in to get a new nose and after that it
was just a case of trying to stay on the road and pick up
positions where possible. All in all it's a real shame as
we could have scored some points today but we take some comfort
from a good performance yesterday which put a smile on the
team's faces."
JACKY EECKELAERT
Engineering Director
"It is disappointing to end our home race in 10th and
11th positions, especially with Jenson having started from
the third row of the grid. His ability to challenge for points
was unfortunately lost at turn one when he lost his front
wing after a coming together with Heidfeld. The visibility
was so poor that you cannot blame either driver for that.
Rubens drove a steady race from 17th to 10th, but unfortunately
the deployment of the safety cars did not match his fuel strategy.
We feel we missed out on an opportunity to score some good
points today and that is frustrating."
RACE STATS
Drivers Car No. Chassis No. Race Result
Rubens Barrichello 8 RA107-02 P10 Fastest Lap 01:31.060
Jenson Button 7 RA107-04 P11 Fastest Lap 01:31.951
Weather Wet and cool
Temperatures Air: 17-18°C Track: 21-23°C
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