Steady progress on opening day in Hungary for Honda

The Honda Racing F1 Team began its on-track preparations at the Hungaroring today, with both RA107s enjoying a trouble-free day of running. Jenson Button knocked up an impressive 67 laps of the twisting 4.381km track, while team-mate Rubens Barrichello completed 49 laps.

The track was typically dusty at the start of the opening 1.5-hour session, making the asphalt very slippery for all the drivers. But a racing line quickly appeared as rubber was laid down and the drivers were able to do some meaningful set-up work. Both Jenson and Rubens completed 20 laps, ending the session in eighth and ninth places respectively.

In the second session, Jenson completed the highest mileage of all the drivers on the grid. During the course of his 47 laps he carried out several tyre comparison runs and evaluated the RA107’s new developments for this race, which he didn’t test at Jerez last week. He ended the session in 16th place with a fastest time of 1:22.550s.

Rubens completed 29 laps in session two, although he was slightly less happy than he was in the morning session. He ended the day two places behind Jenson with a best time of 1:22.727s.

Both Honda Racing F1 Team drivers have won at the Hungaroring, Rubens in 2002 and Jenson in 2006, and they will use their considerable experience of the track to maximise the set-up of the RA107 prior to tomorrow’s qualifying session.

Jenson Button “We have had a reasonable day today. We tested a few new things which seem to have made a small improvement to the balance of the car and also the lap time. It started spitting with rain just before the end of the afternoon session but we had done enough by then to achieve a good tyre comparison. There were two yellow flags on my new tyre run at the end of the session, one for Hamilton and one for Massa, so unfortunately I wasn't able to get a good clean run. As a result we are a little unsure of where we are over one lap but the long run pace is looking okay."

Rubens Barrichello "As is usual for a Friday there was a lot of traffic today. The car was a lot more competitive in the first session this morning than in the second practice. We struggled with a lack of rear grip in the afternoon so we need to look into that and find a solution. Both our cars covered a lot of laps so this gives us a lot of information to work with for the rest of the weekend.”

Jacky Eeckelaert, Engineering Director “We have made a reasonably good start to the weekend with both of the drivers completing the full programme of set-up work. In free practice 1 the track conditions changed a lot during the first part of the session, however both drivers found a good balance. This afternoon they concentrated on tyre evaluations with a heavy fuel load in preparation for the race on Sunday. Apart from traffic on the new tyre runs and a small brake duct problem on Rubens’ car, all went according to plan.”