2007 FRENCH GP: RACE
Jenson Button opened the Honda Racing F1 Team’s world championship
points account in Magny Cours today. He came home in eighth place after
maximising the performance of his RA107 throughout the 70-lap French Grand
Prix.
His team-mate Rubens Barrichello drove an equally committed race to finish in
11th place.
Both Honda Racing F1 Team drivers had good starts and went on to make up three
places each on the opening lap. Jenson, who started on the dirty side of the
grid in 12th place, jumped to ninth place, while Rubens improved from 13th to
10th.
Both drivers used the harder of Bridgestone’s two tyre compounds for the
opening two stints of the race and Jenson drove a very strong middle stint in
which he set personal best times lap-after-lap. As a result he was able to
leapfrog Rosberg at his second pitstop on lap 50, emerging 3.7 sec ahead of the
Williams driver in eighth place.
For the final stint, both drivers switched to the softer compound tyres, on
which Jenson lapped faster than both Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella
ahead of him. At the chequered flag, he was just 2.3 sec behind the double
world champion.
Rubens fought hard to fend off the attentions of Mark Webber, who was just 2.1
sec behind at the chequered flag.
JENSON BUTTON
"It was an enjoyable race today and we've shown that the car has improved
a lot with the new package. It's nice to have a car which gives me the
confidence to push and I'm pleased with my fastest lap time relative to our
competitors. This shows that our race pace is improving, although we still need
to work on our qualifying pace. Once we can get on top of that, we will be in a
much stronger position to compete for points going forward. All credit to the
whole team today as a faultless race with good pit stops helped me make the
most of our strategy. A good weekend and I'm looking forward to another one at
the British Grand Prix next week."
RUBENS BARRICHELLO
"I was quite heavy on fuel for my opening stint and I don't know if that
hurt my first set of tyres because I just didn't have any pace in the car.
After that, the pace began to improve but unfortunately it was too late to make
any further progress up the field. We will have to look into the reasons for
the problems but on the positive side we can certainly say that the car has
improved at this race and it is encouraging to take that step forward. We need
to maintain our focus now and work hard to bring further improvements."
JACKY EECKELAERT
Engineering Director
"Jenson drove a very good race which proves that the recent car
developments have helped us to improve our race pace. Rubens was not so happy
with his brakes and had to drive defensively as for much of the race he had
lighter cars behind him. All in all one point is a small reward but
well-deserved nonetheless."