Australian Grand Prix : Qualifying

The Honda Racing F1 Team experienced a difficult qualifying session in Melbourne today as the Formula One teams prepare for tomorrow’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Jenson Button ended the day 14th whilst team-mate Rubens Barrichello was knocked-out during the first of the three sessions and will line up 17th for the 58-lap race.


Jenson Button		Rubens Barrichello

JENSON BUTTON
Saturday Practice: P17 1:28.119
Qualifying 1: P15 1:27.540
Qualifying 2: P14 1:27.264
Qualifying 3: –
“It hasn’t been a good weekend for us so far. Today it was difficult to judge how hard to push the tyres. At the start of the lap I was getting understeer because the tyres were not up to temperature, then later in the lap I was getting oversteer as the rears were going off, which just show the issues that we have. I got the best out of the car today and right now we are where we are. We’ll obviously do what we can for the race then we have some work to do to start addressing the issues we have identified.”

RUBENS BARRICHELLO
Saturday Practice: P15 1:28.039
Qualifying 1: P17 1:27.679
Qualifying 2: –
Qualifying 3: –
"I was expecting that we would compete in the second session today so I’m disappointed by our performance in qualifying. I had a problem right from the start with the car bottoming out much more than it has been at any other point over the weekend. That is something we have to look at for the race tomorrow. It was very close at the end of the first session with so many cars fighting to get through but unfortunately we just couldn’t make it this time."

JACKY EECKELAERT Engineering Director
“We are obviously disappointed with the results from today’s qualifying. The performance of the RA107 is far from where we want and expect it to be. The drivers got the most of the car that they could today. We are working flat out at the factory to improve the car for the coming races.”

SUPER AGURI F1 TEAM


Takuma Sato		Anthony Davidson

TAKUMA SATO
Saturday Practice: P9 1:27.266
Qualifying 1: P12 1:27.365
Qualifying 2: P10 1:26.758
Qualifying 3: P10 1:28.871
“What can I say, it was an absolutely fantastic team effort. It was a difficult day again as it was spitting with rain and a set-up change took longer than expected in the practice session so we only completed a few laps. During the whole of Qualifying the team worked well together, building up the car, step-by-step and things just went the right way. I was always going to be very happy if we made it into Q2, but I never imagined that we would reach Q3 - but we did, and it is a great feeling. Obviously this is just the start of the season, and we have a lot of work to do, so for tomorrow we just hope to have a good race.”

ANTHONY DAVIDSON
Saturday Practice: P4 1:26.491
Qualifying 1: P8 1:26.986
Qualifying 2: P11 1:26.909
Qualifying 3: -
“It was awesome. I felt really on top of the car and what I did in Free Practice continued on in to Qualifying. I was really enjoying it and then I went off on my first attempt and I lost a little bit of time. On my last run I lost a lot of time in the last corner and I didn’t set a good lap, but my next two split times were better than Taku, so I'm happy and generally really pleased for the team, but a little bit frustrated that I set my best time in Free Practice and not Qualifying.”

GRAHAM TAYLOR, Sporting Director
“Fantastic news for the team. Again the weather interrupted the preparation for the final Free Practice session, but we got some good running in at the end and I think we showed ourselves to be in a racing state of mind. Come Qualifying, we tried to keep the boys as calm as possible, including ourselves, and we knew that if everything went our way we had a shot at getting through to Q3, but we weren't really expecting it. For Anthony to miss out on Q3 is the only disappointing thing about Qualifying today. To get Taku through to Q3 and to finish in the top 10 at the first race of our second season in the World Championship is just astounding. Everyone in the team, and back home at the factory in Leafield, did a fantastic job; the drivers drove very well and the Engineers got the cars balanced well. I would also like to thank all of our sponsors and partners Honda and Bridgestone Potenza.”

Formula One World Championship
Round 01: Australian Grand Prix : Qualifying


1		K RAIKKONEN (Ferrari)

2		F ALONSO (McLaren-Mercedes)

3		N HEIDFELD (BMW)

4		L HAMILTON (McLaren-Mercedes)

5		R KUBICA (BMW)

6		G FISICHELLA (Renault)

7		M WEBBER (Red Bull-Renault)

8		J TRULLI (Toyota)

9		R SCHUMACHER (Toyota)

10		T SATO (SUPER AGURI F1 TEAM)

11		A DAVIDSON (SUPER AGURI F1 TEAM)

12		N ROSBERG (Williams-Toyota)

13		H KOVALAINEN (Renault)

14		J BUTTON (Honda Racing F1 Team)

15		A WURZ (Williams-Toyota)

16		F MASSA (Ferrari)

17		R BARRICHELLO (Honda Racing F1 Team)

18		S SPEED (STR-Ferrari)

19		D COULTHARD (Red Bull-Renault)

20		V LIUZZI (STR-Ferrari)

21		A SUTIL (Spyker-Ferrari)

22		C ALBERS (Spyker-Ferrari)

< Formula 1

Related Links

·	Honda F1 Official Web Site
·	Honda Worldwide \| Formula 1 - Formula One World Championship
·	Australia

Australian Grand Prix : Qualifying

Honda Worldwide Home > Motor Sports > Formula 1 > 2007 Topics > Round 01: Australian GP > Qualifying