Honda F1 9 July 2004

B.A.R HONDA'S JENSON BUTTON FIFTH FASTEST IN FREE PRACTICE
Button, Sato and Davidson finish fifth, ninth and 16th at Silverstone

Yesterday's rain was nowhere to be seen for Friday Free Practice at Silverstone today and Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda's Jenson Button enjoyed a solid session on home turf, setting the fifth fastest time of the afternoon in preparation for Sunday's British Grand Prix. B.A.R Honda team-mate Takuma Sato ended the afternoon ninth while third driver Anthony Davidson finished 16th, having been fifth fastest in the morning.

Button, who finished 10th in the morning, clocked a best lap of 1m19.401s in the second session and completed 27 laps overall, ending the afternoon in fifth place. Sato, who finished the morning session 13th, covered a total of 26 laps on his way to setting the ninth fastest time of the afternoon, a 1m19.611s.

B.A.R Honda third driver Anthony Davidson set the fifth fastest time of the morning practice session but in the afternoon the Briton stopped out on track with a suspected gearbox problem. In his limited running time of 20 minutes this afternoon, Davidson was able to set the 16th fastest time of 1m20.861s.

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen set the pace around the 3.194miles/5.141km Silverstone circuit this afternoon, followed by Giancarlo Fisichella (Sauber), Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) and the second McLaren of David Coulthard. B.A.R Honda's Jenson Button and Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello set the fifth and sixth fastest times while Mark Gene (Williams) and Renault's Jarno Trulli ended the afternoon seventh and eighth.

Jenson Button Position: 5th
"We completed most of our tyre work today but it's a shame about Anthony's problem. I think we know the direction we're heading in, we just have a lot more work to do to optimise the car in time for qualifying. The support from the crowd has been fantastic already and we just have to keep focused and do everything we can to build on today's performance and get stronger as we head into the race."

Takuma Sato Position: 9th
"We hoped we would be stronger here today after the positive tests we had earlier in the season. The car isn't performing as well as we'd hoped and we have a lot more work to do to be more competitive for qualifying and the race, as we are looking for a podium finish here. We didn't complete the full tyre evaluation but hopefully there is enough data between the three of us to confirm our choice for tomorrow."

Anthony Davidson Position: 16th
"This isn't the way I wanted to start the team's home race weekend. I had a good morning and was hoping to continue that progress into this afternoon but unfortunately we had a gearbox failure after just 14 laps. Our long-run performance seems to be very good but it's a shame that I was unable to complete our tyre evaluation. Jenson and Taku managed to pack some of my programme into the end of theirs, so all is not lost but it's not ideal. The tyres I ran felt good so we have good reason to feel positive. I hope today's problem has got all our bad luck out of the way for the rest of the weekend and the guys can go on to do a great job in front of our home crowd."

Shuhei Nakamoto - Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development "Not too bad today. Although Anthony's problem stopped us completing the programme in full I don't think it will hurt us too much for the rest of the weekend. I am glad the rain stayed away!"

Today's results Free Practice 2 P.

Driver Team - Engine Tyres TimeS
1. RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes M 1'18"655
2. FISICHELLA Sauber Petronas B 1'18"660
3. M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari B 1'19"162
4. COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes M 1'19"287
5. BUTTON BAR Honda M 1'19"401
6. BARRICHELLO Ferrari B 1'19"473
7. GENE Williams BMW M 1'19"540
8. TRULLI Renault M 1'19"601
9. SATO BAR Honda M 1'19"611
10. MASSA Sauber Petronas B 1'19"676
11. MONTOYA Williams BMW M 1'19"746
12. ALONSO Renault M 1'19"874
13. ZONTA Toyota M 1'20"095
14. PANIS Toyota M 1'20"489
15. DA MATTA Toyota M 1'20"829
16. DAVIDSON BAR Honda M 1'20"861
17. KLIEN Jaguar Cosworth M 1'21"073
18. WEBBER Jaguar Cosworth M 1'21"352
19. WIRDHEIM Jaguar Cosworth M 1'21"353
20. HEIDFELD Jordan Ford B 1'22"365
21. GLOCK Jordan Ford B 1'22"500
22. BRUNI Minardi Cosworth B 1'22"516
23. PANTANO Jordan Ford B 1'22"586
24. LEINDERS Minardi Cosworth B 1'22"792
25. BAUMGARTNER Minardi Cosworth B 1'23"436