Malaysian Grand Prix : Qualifying

The Honda Racing F1 Team drivers endured a difficult qualifying session in Sepang today with Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello ending the session in 15th and 19th positions respectively.

Given the performance issues experienced here this weekend, the team was realistic about the challenge of today's qualifying, but was disappointed that both cars were unable to make it through to Q2. A gearbox problem with Rubens' race car confined it to the garage at the start of the hour-long session, forcing a last-minute switch to the spare car, which was not set-up for him. Q1 was therefore an even bigger struggle than anticipated.

Jenson Button		Rubens Barrichello

JENSON BUTTON
Saturday Practice: P17 1:36.658
Qualifying 1: P13 1:35.913
Qualifying 2: P15 1:36.088
Qualifying 3: –
“I'm obviously very frustrated. We know where we are at the moment and we're doing the best with what we have, but qualifying 15th is still difficult to accept. We made it through to Q2 but the car isn't good enough to get us through to the final session at the moment. It was unbelievable how much grip I lost towards the end of the second session. So we start from the second half of the grid and we'll have to see what the race brings, but this is always a tough race and tomorrow will be no exception.”

RUBENS BARRICHELLO
Saturday Practice: P19 1:36.972
Qualifying 1: P19 1:36.827
Qualifying 2: –
Qualifying 3: –
"There is very little I can say, I am so disappointed. Given our current performance level, qualifying well was always going to be a struggle but to find myself where I am is so frustrating. Immediately before the session we had the problem with my race car so I had to switch to the spare car. That car wasn't set up for me, so in many ways it was like starting from the beginning again. At least by the end of free practice today my race car was well-balanced but obviously I wasn't able to benefit from the small improvement we had made with that car this morning which is very frustrating. Starting from the back of the grid tomorrow I can only see what opportunities arise in the race and that is the best we can expect."

JACKY EECKELAERT, Engineering Director
“Jenson's 15th place qualifying position is disappointing but unfortunately it reflects the current performance level of the car. Rubens' position is obviously even more frustrating and less reflective of the car's current capabilities. We found a gearbox problem on his race car shortly before the start of qualifying and we had to switch to the spare car, which is unfortunate as he had found a good balance this morning and this had put him closer to the pace of Jenson. Tomorrow will be a tough race and we now have to hope that the good work we did on Friday on race set-up can give us some possibilities to improve during the race.”

Takuma Sato		Anthony Davidson

TAKUMA SATO
Saturday Practice: P16 1:36.545
Qualifying 1: P15 1:36.430
Qualifying 2: P14 1:35.945
Qualifying 3: -
“It was a tough Qualifying. Having had a difficult free practice session, I missed the opportunity to do the soft tyre run properly in FP3. Going into Qualifying you really need to focus, and I did the best I could but unfortunately, as a team, we made a mistake for the tyre choice in the first session which knocked my confidence, rhythm and lap time. It was very hard to go through Q1, however I re-focussed and we just made it through to Q2. We improved in the second session, but the whole of Qualifying was tough. We should be happy with our result today, but it could have possibly been better. We are where we expected to be because this is such a demanding circuit, so even though I am slightly disappointed, at the same time I am happy and looking forward to tomorrow with hope.”

ANTHONY DAVIDSON
Saturday Practice: P8 1:36.195
Qualifying 1: P18 1:36.816
Qualifying 2: -
Qualifying 3: -
“I'm a bit frustrated with Qualifying because I had traffic on my lap on the soft tyre. The first run was okay, my banker lap on the harder tyre gave me P12 at that time, so I was confident I could improve on that easily in my second run. But the Toro Rosso held me up on his out lap and my flying lap and that was enough to ensure that I didn't improve on my time and didn't make it out of the first session, which is a shame.”

GRAHAM TAYLOR, Sporting Director
“It’s quite strange having a disappointed feeling when you’ve got a car through to Q2. We did not enjoy the best run in Q1 from a traffic prospective, especially for Anthony. He’s annoyed at one or two of the other drivers who did not pay enough attention to their mirrors when he was on his performance lap and that cost him time. We got Takuma through into Q2, which is fantastic, and it’s where we believe a SUPER AGURI car should be. We are a young team and we are all growing up and need to take this on the chin and move forward.”