Formula One news

Dismal day sees both Hondas out in Q1

Honda Racing F1 Team's Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button will start tomorrow's 44-lap Belgian Grand Prix from 16th and 17th positions on the grid at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Both drivers completed three runs during Q1, and whilst they were able to improve their lap times by more than a second from beginning to end, neither Honda driver was able to progress to Q2. 

"We have to be pleased with what we achieved in Qualifying today, particularly given that we have been pretty much at the bottom of the timesheets so far this weekend," said Barrichello. "It was a good lap and a good effort from the team. It's just a shame that the car is not able to be more competitive here."

Button commented, "My first lap in Qualifying was the first lap that I did today so in a way it was nice to be able to beat some of our competitors and be close to my team-mate. It was a decent session for us, at the level of performance which the car is showing this weekend, and we will at least be starting from the clean side of the grid. Rain tomorrow would make the race more interesting but unfortunately it's not looking likely."

Honda's head of engineering Steve Clark added, "That is certainly the case. Following our poor showing yesterday we had to make some pretty significant changes to the cars overnight, both aerodynamic and suspension. Our Friday was not very productive, which is obviously not the best way to go into a Grand Prix weekend. This morning Rubens found the overnight changes to be beneficial but Jenson stopped out on the circuit with a mechanical problem. While P16 & P17 was not where we hoped to be, the reality is that it is a reasonable result given how the weekend started. The cars were well balanced and it seems unlikely that the drivers could have found enough to take them through to Q2."

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