Saturday – Honda could have done much better

As Honda aims for 7th place in the constructors’ standings, its points tally may not change over this European weekend. The reason being, Honda finds itself at the same level as Force India, in other words, at the back of the grid.

However, the third morning free practice sessions raised a lot of hopes but ultimately it was the 16th and 19th places awarded to Button and Barrichello respectively.

Jenson Button – 12th and 16th:

« It was a really disappointing qualifying today. This disappointment is compounded by the fact that we were fast during the weekend. My first stint with the first set of tires was good, but the second option turned out to be disastrous for my last fast lap in Q1. »

I had no grip with this option and I wasn’t competitive at all. I’m really disappointed because we improved the car but today we didn’t get the best out of it.

Rubens Barrichello – 18th and 19th:

« A day like this is incredibly frustrating. We weren’t able to find the right balance of the car this morning during practice. This afternoon, I frequently locked the rear wheels, which cost me a lot of time. It’s very disappointing to start the first race in Valencia from the back of the grid. »

Steve Clark – Race Director

« Our pace in the tests was real. Today, I thought we could have had a car in the top ten. Rubens struggled with his car all day, and we never really managed to overcome the problems. »

Jenson has a car that works very well as we saw in the first qualifying session when he used the first set of tires.

« It is a big challenge that awaits us tomorrow. If the cars perform well, the drivers in front will be slower and we think that overtaking will be difficult. However, incidents are likely to occur. We must now focus on developing our strategy. »