02/07/2004
NEWS STORY
Rain showers and cool conditions prevailed throughout today's Free Practice sessions as Lucky Strike BAR Honda began their preparation for Sunday's French Grand Prix in Magny-Cours. Anthony Davidson, Jenson Button and Takuma Sato ended the first session in 9th, 12th and 16th places respectively, as the rain came prior to the bulk of their running. Anthony and Jenson recovered well in damp to drying conditions this afternoon, posting the 3rd and 4th fastest laps of the second session. Takuma concentrated rather more on tyre selection, which prevented him from improving on 17th. All three drivers were pleased with the car's performance despite the conditions.
Jenson Button: "We normally run a longer programme, but there have been such changeable weather conditions, with a lot of stopping and starting, so we haven't achieved all we had hoped for. Luckily we got all three cars out in the dry and we can choose our tyres after tomorrow's free practice. I think that we have a good tyre, and the car really feels good. We just need to make a few adjustments to the set-up and I think that we will be up there tomorrow pushing hard with Ferrari."
Takuma Sato: "We were not able to do much running due to the changeable weather but we were at least able to run our dry tyre session which will be useful considering that the rest of the weekend is expected to be dry. We had a productive test at Jerez, so we are confident for tomorrow and we now have to see what the weather brings in order to make our tyre choice somewhat later than usual after free practice tomorrow. I am really looking forward to another strong weekend like we had at Indianapolis."
Anthony Davidson: "The rain has been a little frustrating today but not entirely unexpected. We haven't been able to get anywhere near as much running as we'd hoped but sufficient dry running for what is likely to be a dry but cool weekend ahead. The car felt good in all conditions and I was comfortable pushing hard all day. Once again it feels good to be the fastest of the third drivers today and P3 in the second session."
David Richards, Team Principal: "The weather we have experienced today is what we would usually expect next weekend for the British Grand Prix and has resulted in rather frustrating and fruitless testing, as it is expected to be dry for the race on Sunday. Nonetheless, the short dry running we got suggests that we should be very competitive."
Geoffrey Willis, Technical Director: "It has been very difficult to draw strong conclusions from either of today's sessions since the conditions changed from fully wet to fully dry several times. Despite this we have had no problems with the cars and all three drivers were happy with the balance in all conditions. We now have the opportunity to delay our tyre choice until after tomorrow's free practice running and we are optimistic about the weekend ahead."
Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development: "I was pleased to see that our drivers were quick in such changeable weather conditions. It doesn't worry me that we haven't done too much dry running today as everyone is in the same position."