Formula 1 News

2008 Turkish GP, Qualifying: Honda quotes 

Steve Clark, Head of Race & Test Engineering: “The issues we had were with the tyres and trying to get grip from the prime or a balance on the option tyre. We saw this morning that the two tyres behaved differently and the two drivers split their strategy in Q1 because of this. In the second session neither car had the pace to get into the top ten. We had no problems aside from being able to get the most out of the tyres, so obviously this is a disappointment as we felt that we had made a little more progress here. The race may be very interesting tomorrow. This is a very difficult track and many drivers have been running off the circuit so far in the event. With heavy fuel loads and worn tyres I expect to see quite a few mistakes and incidents. Both Jenson and Rubens are happier with their cars in race trim, and neither has had an off-track excursion so far. If we can have a tidy race with a consistent pace then we may still make it into the points. That is certainly the outcome we will be striving for.”

Jenson Button: “I have to be reasonably pleased with 13th as we were struggling to get the tyres working in qualifying today. Q1 was not too bad and we completed both runs on the prime tyre. We switched to the option for my first run in Q2 as everyone seemed to be going quicker on that tyre but for some reason the option didn’t work for me and I had no grip. So we went back to the prime which should be about three-tenths slower around here so 13th is not too bad. It’s annoying that we can’t get the option to work but our prime tyre pace is very good, particularly over longer runs. It’s a long way forward to get points from here but this is a tough circuit on engines so we’ll see what happens. I’ve always had fun racing here as it’s a great place to overtake so I’m looking forward to the race.”

Rubens Barrichello: “It was a good effort from everyone today however unfortunately we are not as fast as we thought we might be here in Turkey. It is a balance problem, rather than the tyres or grip levels, and I believe we achieved the best that we could today. I could not get the car to perform well over the whole lap. The first and second sector were good, but the third sector was not working for us. Realistically this is where the car is at the moment. We need another step to make us a regular qualifier into Q3.”

source: Honda Racing