2006 United States Grand Prix - Free Practice

                                                                                                                                                                               
2006 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX
INDIANAPOLIS
30 JUNE


FREE PRACTICE


The Honda Racing F1 Team's Anthony Davidson was the fastest man on track 
in Indianapolis today as free practice got underway at the legendary 
Motor Speedway. He topped the timesheets in both the morning and 
afternoon sessions and completed a total of 65 laps.

The team's race drivers also made a positive start to their United States 
Grand Prix weekend, lapping within 0.1 seconds of each other in session 
one to be fourth and fifth fastest. In session two, the drivers tried 
different set-ups, with the result that Jenson finished the day eighth 
and Rubens 18th, split by 0.7 seconds.

Anthony's fastest times celebrated a positive return to Indianapolis for 
Honda and the Honda Racing F1 Team. Earlier this week, Honda announced 
plans to build a new automobile plant near Greensburg, Indiana, 50 miles 
south of Indianapolis. The plant will begin mass production of 
fuel-efficient 4-cylinder vehicles in the Autumn of 2008, with an annual 
production capacity of 200,000 vehicles and the creation of 2,000 new 
jobs. The new plant will grow Honda's employment in North America to more 
than 37,000 associates.

ANTHONY DAVIDSON
"It's been a very good day today. We had a very conclusive tyre test so my 
work is done on that side of things and Michelin have some positive results 
all round. We also had a trouble free day. I feel much more at home in the 
car this weekend than I did in Canada and I think everybody in the team has 
done a great job to make such a good start to the weekend. It's early days 
yet so we'll see how the rest of the weekend goes, but I'm pleased with the 
work we have done today."
 
RUBENS BARRICHELLO
"It's been a good Friday, although I don't yet have a good balance on the car. 
We seem to be a little more competitive than in Canada and I want this to be 
a much better weekend for us so we'll just keep working hard towards the race 
on Sunday and see how things go from here."

JENSON BUTTON
"Today has been a positive day and we've made a few changes which have worked 
out well for us, so overall a good start to the weekend. It's looking better 
than Montreal did at this stage, thankfully, and it's nice to have a car that 
feels normal underneath me. We have something we can really work with and keep 
improving through the rest of the weekend so fingers crossed for tomorrow and 
the race."
 
GIL DE FERRAN
Sporting Director
"This has been quite a good Friday. We were able to complete all the planned 
running without any major issues and improve the cars throughout the day. It 
is also nice to have Anthony finish on top of the timesheets again, however 
there is still a lot of work to do prior to race day.  An encouraging start 
nevertheless. It's good to be back in action at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
 - a circuit which the whole team enjoys very much and we look forward to 
putting on a great race for the local crowd."


FREE PRACTICE STATS

Drivers	        	Car No.	Chassis	  Free Practice 1               Free Practice 2			

Rubens Barrichello	11	RA106-01  5 laps  01:13.090  P4	20 laps	  01:14.011  P18	
Jenson Button 	  	12	RA106-05  6 laps  01:13.189  P5	16 laps	  01:13.397  P8	
Anthony Davidson  	36 	RA106-03  27 laps 01:12.083  P1	38 laps	  01:12.013  P1	

Weather 	  		Hot and sunny	
Temperatures	  	Air: 27-31°C    Track: 39-47°C