26/08/2006
NEWS STORY
Jenson Button will lead the Honda Racing F1 Team's Turkish Grand Prix challenge tomorrow, lining up on the third row of the grid after ending today's qualifying session in sixth place.
Team-mate Rubens Barrichello will start from 14th after struggling to find a good balance with his RA106 race car this afternoon.
This afternoon's qualifying result comes on the back of a positive start to the weekend for the team, with a strong performance in all three practice sessions and on long runs in particular, indicating that both cars should benefit from a stronger race pace.
Jenson Button: "I was obviously hoping for something more from qualifying today, although we have been struggling a little bit in the last sector here - on the long straight and the three very slow corners at the end. That's where we have been losing out to Alonso. On the positive side we have been looking good on the long runs, as we demonstrated on Friday and this morning. So it's looking like we could be better off in the race, in which case P6 on the grid isn't so bad."
Rubens Barrichello: "Unfortunately I didn't have a good balance with the car for the whole qualifying session today. It was quite strange because the car felt much better this morning throughout practice, so we have to look at that and see what has happened. So that was my qualifying today but we know that the car has a good race pace, plus we can choose our fuel level from here, so I am hopeful that we can have a decent race tomorrow and I can fight my way through the field."
Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director: "We certainly would have preferred to be a bit further up. In the case of Rubens we just couldn't get the balance to his liking on new tyres. Jenson did a great job in Q2, but we haven't been particularly fast in the last sector all weekend and unfortunately that cost Jenson a few places on the grid. However, both cars have been very competitive and consistent on long runs and used tyres, which bodes well for the race."
To check out our Istanbul qualifying gallery, click here