Canadian Grand Prix: Qualifying

The Honda Racing F1 Team's Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button will start tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix from the 7th and 8th rows of the grid after ending today's qualifying session in 13th and 15th positions respectively. Both drivers made it through Q1 but struggled during Q2, Jenson experiencing low grip whilst Rubens' quick lap was compromised when he ran wide onto the marbles.

Rubens Barrichello		Jenson Button

RUBENS BARRICHELLO
Saturday Practice: P8 1:37.463
Qualifying 1: P7 01:17.011
Qualifying 2: P13 01:17.116
Qualifying 3: -
“It was a good qualifying session today and I like the balance of the car. Unfortunately I lost some time into the hairpin when I ran a little wide on the marbles and with that I lost the chance to go into the top ten. I'm still feeling positive for the race tomorrow however as the car has a good balance and seems to be working better on the old tyres than the new.”

JENSON BUTTON
Saturday Practice: P12 1:37.442
Qualifying 1: P15 01:17.522
Qualifying 2: P15 01:17.541
Qualifying 3: -
“We really struggled with the grip levels in Qualifying this afternoon. The car just didn't feel like it did during practice this morning and had very low grip all round the circuit. I've qualified well here over the past few years but unfortunately not today. It's very disappointing for myself and the whole team, but we have to look at the data now and try to make the best of our package for the race tomorrow.”

JACKY EECKELAERT Engineering Director
“We expected to qualify higher up the grid but neither of the drivers got a clean lap at the end of Q2. We have also suffered with tyre warm-up problems and therefore a general lack of grip. With race fuel loads tomorrow this problem will disappear. We have a good race pace and with the right strategy we should be able to make up a number of places.”

SUPER AGURI F1 TEAM experienced a difficult Saturday in Monaco. During the morning rain made for a tricky third practice session and although track conditions improved in the afternoon, the Qualifying session did not run to plan for the team.

Takuma Sato		Anthony Davidson

TAKUMA SATO
Saturday Practice: P5 1:16.864
Qualifying 1: P16 1:17.490
Qualifying 2: P11 1:16.743
Qualifying 3: -
“I am pleased with the result and we are in a very good position for the race tomorrow. We were expecting to have a tough weekend in Canada as our circumstances make it difficult to fully update the car as much as we would like to. However, we made good progress during the practice sessions and a good step forward once again, so I am pleased that the car showed good performance and that it all came together today. Hopefully we can have a strong race tomorrow.”

ANTHONY DAVIDSON
Saturday Practice: P10 1:17.391
Qualifying 1: P17 1:17.542
Qualifying 2: -
Qualifying 3: -
“It was a difficult Q1 after the Red Flag and I think it made everyone change their plans very quickly. We got one run in, but I think that a lot of the other teams got two runs in and that was always going to make it extremely tight. I think we both drove a good lap for only doing one quick run. I got rear graining as well on my tyres for the last half of the lap and that's where all my time disappeared to. I think that without the graining I would have easily made it through to Q2. I was 5/10ths up on my time from this morning and I was really happy with my times, but when I got round to Turn 10 it all fell away and I ended the lap on a 17.5 and that’s a real shame.”

GRAHAM TAYLOR, Sporting Director
“The Red Flag during Q1 set us on the back foot a little bit this afternoon, but we recovered well I think to get the cars out at the right time. Unfortunately for Anthony we weren't able to set a good enough lap time to get him through to Q2, missing out by a thousandth of a second. It is disappointing because his Sector 1 and Sector 2 times looked more than capable of getting us through to the next round. Taku did not have a great run, but it was good enough to get us through to Q2 where, with a structured plan, we could perform at our rightful place. He completed a good lap to put himself P11 on the grid and give us the best option for strategy for tomorrow.”