2005 French Grand Prix - FREE PRACTICE
Magny Cours, 1-2-3 July
Drivers Car No. Chassis
Jenson Button 3 B·A·R Honda 007-04
Takuma Sato 4 B·A·R Honda 007-05
T-Car B·A·R Honda 007-02
Weather: Warm and dry but overcast Temperatures - Air: 20-22°C Track:
27-35°C
Eager to get back to the business of racing, the Lucky Strike B·A·R Honda
team made a good start to its French Grand Prix weekend today in the first
of the free practice sessions for Sunday's 70-lap race.
Takuma Sato and Jenson Button worked through their regular programme of
Michelin tyre evaluation and set-up work, and had their first opportunity to
see how well the latest aerodynamic upgrades and Honda engine developments
translated from a positive test in Jerez last week to the racetrack here in
Magny Cours. Takuma Sato ended the morning session in 4th place, with
team-mate Jenson Button close behind in 6th. This afternoon, the focus
switched to a longer-run tyre programme and Jenson ended the day 12th with
Taku in 14th place.
JENSON BUTTON
Free Practice 1 Position: 6th Fastest lap time: 1:16.038
Free Practice 2 Position: 12th Fastest lap time: 1:16.597
"It's been a good day today and we've achieved a lot of good tyre work.
This morning, the track was very dusty and slippery, so we didn't do too
much running and therefore couldn't gather much data. This afternoon we
were able to make up for that. We've done some long runs, the car has been
working well and the tyre work has been very consistent, so I'm happy with
the package that we have for Magny Cours We've still got a bit of work to
do to get closer to the top of the timesheets for tomorrow but the baseline
is there and I'm hoping we can look forward to a positive weekend here."
TAKUMA SATO
Free Practice 1 Position: 4th Fastest lap time: 1:15.530
Free Practice 2 Position: 14th Fastest lap time: 1:16.890
"We have carried over all of the good work that we completed in testing to
the practice sessions today, concentrating on race set-up during our longer
runs this afternoon and working through our tyre programme. The car seems to
have good balance, similar to the way we were running in North America, and
the very different high-downforce aero package that we have for this race
appears to be working well. Our data is showing very positive signs."
GIL DE FERRAN, SPORTING DIRECTOR
"Looking at the final timesheets, one could be forgiven for thinking that we
are disappointed with today's result. However, the opposite is true since
we are quite happy with today's outcome. Once it became clear that rain was
no longer a threat and track conditions were likely to remain reasonably
consistent, we very much concentrated on doing longer runs, especially in
the afternoon when the track was quickest. The Michelin tyres proved to be
quite consistent during those long runs and we believe that we have made a
step forward in our high-downforce configuration for this race. We are
hopeful of a good performance in qualifying tomorrow. Finally, it feels
good just to be concentrating on racing again after a turbulent few weeks."
SHUHEI NAKAMOTO, ENGINEERING DIRECTOR, HONDA RACING DEVELOPMENT
"Generally, we have made a positive start to our French GP weekend today.
We are using the latest specification of Honda engine here and, as expected,
the performance has been very good. We look forward to a strong weekend
here in Magny Cours."
