March 22, 200817 yr Button happy despite missing Q3 Jenson Button was extremely satisfied with his Malaysian Grand Prix performance, despite narrowly missing out on a top ten place.The Honda driver lapped 0.068 seconds shy of the Q3 cut-off time on the way to 11th place."I'm happy with P11 and to be starting on the right side of the grid for the race," Button said."The weather was looking changeable with the risk of rain, so we ran early in both sessions to get a banker time in. My final run in the second session was on the option tyres and I'm really happy with the lap as we just missed out on going through by less than 0.1 seconds."Button said he had been struggling with the softer tyres until track conditions improved."The main challenge was choosing between the prime and the option tyre," he said."I was struggling to get the options to work so I was running on the primes for most of the session but pretty much everyone else was on the option tyre."So with that much option rubber going down on the track, we had to give it a go for my last run in Q2, and we were 0.25 seconds quicker. That was as quick as the car is today and I put in a good lap, so I'm pleased with our position."Teammate Rubens Barrichello will start 14th, and felt the loss of some practice time to a gearbox fault had been costly."It was unfortunate that we had a problem this morning with the gear selection which limited my running and therefore when you go into qualifying, you are playing catch-up all the time," he said."However it was a good effort this afternoon and I'm happy with how our session developed to eventually finish in 14th position. It would have been nice to have more time this morning to set the car up a little better but we made the best of a difficult situation."
March 23, 200817 yr Grand Prix of Malaysia - 23 March 2008Race1 K. Raikkonen 1:31:18.555 2 R. Kubica + 19.570 3 H. Kovalainen + 38.450 4 J. Trulli + 45.832 5 L. Hamilton + 46.548 6 N. Heidfeld + 49.833 7 M. Webber + 1:08.130 8 F. Alonso + 1:10.041 9 D. Coulthard + 1:16.220 10 J. Button + 1:26.214 11 N. Piquet jr. + 1:32.202 12 G. Fisichella + 1 laps 13 R. Barrichello + 1 laps 14 N. Rosberg + 1 laps 15 A. Davidson + 1 laps 16 T. Sato + 2 laps 17 K. Nakajima + 2 laps Did not finish 18 S. Vettel + 16 laps 19 F. Massa + 26 laps 20 A. Sutil + 50 laps 21 T. Glock + 54 laps 22 S. Bourdais + 56 laps
March 23, 200817 yr Top ten for Honda23 March 2008 Honda achieved a top 10 finish in today's Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang Circuit in Kuala Lumpur. Jenson Button brought his RA108 home in 10th place and team-mate Rubens Barrichello ended the race in 13th position. "It was good to finish the full race distance today and we will get a lot of very useful information from this weekend," said Button. "I'm pretty satisfied with 10th place as that is where the performance of the car is right now. With the majority of cars ahead of us also finishing, it is a good reflection of our overall position. We're going in the right direction and learning more about the car all the time, so we need to keep up the hard work and continue to develop ahead of the next race in two weeks' time." Barrichello commented, "Unfortunately my weekend was compromised when we lost the free practice running on Saturday morning, as I lacked balance in the car for the race today. I had a lot of understeer and was battling with that throughout the race. The drive-through penalty after my second stop was unfortunate, even though I only lost one place, as the markings in the pitlane to indicate where the speed limit ends were not clear enough." Team boss Ross Brawn added, "This weekend was more straightforward for the whole field compared with Melbourne and we saw fewer drivers making mistakes. Sepang is also a more representative circuit in terms of car performance, as Melbourne can produce unusual results. Therefore to see Jenson finish the race in 10th place with Rubens just behind, in spite of his problems in the third free practice session, is very encouraging and a real indication of the car's pace. There is still a great deal of work to do but we are really starting to make improvements one step at a time."
March 29, 200817 yr Button aiming for top ten in Bahrain29 March 2008Fresh from a strong drive to tenth place in the Malaysian Grand Prix last weekend, Jenson Button goes to Bahrain confident Honda can continue to knock on the door of the top ten."We are pleased with our performance so far this season and it was very valuable to complete the full race distance in Malaysia last weekend," Button said. "Our overall position in the midfield pack is encouraging, however we have to make a further step to be competing for points on a regular basis. With no opportunity for testing since the season began, we will be using the data gathered in Australia and Malaysia to maximise our performance at what will be another very hot race in Bahrain. I'm hopeful that we will be knocking on the door of the top ten in qualifying once again.""I'm a big fan of Bahrain as a country and I also really enjoy the circuit as there are some great fast flowing sections where you can really push the car," he added. "Confidence under braking is the key to a quick lap. You have to believe in the car's performance and have full confidence that you can stop effectively. The sand blowing onto the tarmac can be a challenge as you never know how the grip levels will change."
April 7, 200817 yr Bahrain Grand Prix 1st Free Practice1 F. Massa 1:32.233 202 K. Räikkönen 1:32.350 153 N. Rosberg 1:32.415 234 L. Hamilton 1:32.705 215 H. Kovalainen 1:32.868 206 K. Nakajima 1:33.121 247 R. Kubica 1:33.333 168 J. Trulli 1:33.539 279 D. Coulthard 1:33.788 2010 F. Alonso Renault 1:33.815 1911 T. Glock 1:33.929 2812 M. Webber 1:33.950 2013 N. Piquet jr. 1:33.981 2414 N. Heidfeld 1:34.106 1715 S. Bourdais 1:34.235 2716 S. Vettel 1:34.321 3217 G. Fisichella 1:34.892 2018 J. Button 1:34.915 1619 R. Barrichello 1:35.174 1220 A. Sutil 1:35.429 2221 A. Davidson 1:36.145 622 T. Sato 1:36.536 6
April 7, 200817 yr Bahrain Grand Prix 2nd Free Practice1 F. Massa 1:31.420 302 K. Räikkönen 1:32.327 303 H. Kovalainen 1:32.752 304 L. Hamilton 1:32.847 265 R. Kubica 1:32.915 296 N. Rosberg 1:33.022 347 D. Coulthard 1:33.048 278 K. Nakajima 1:33.098 339 S. Bourdais 1:33.197 3710 N. Piquet jr. 1:33.247 3711 J. Button 1:33.710 3312 F. Alonso 1:33.755 2613 M. Webber 1:33.782 3414 J. Trulli 1:33.822 3815 T. Glock 1:33.856 3016 R. Barrichello 1:33.966 3517 N. Heidfeld 1:34.023 3618 G. Fisichella 1:34.388 3519 A. Sutil 1:34.405 3420 S. Vettel 1:34.787 3021 T. Sato 1:35.288 2422 A. Davidson 1:35.712 25
April 7, 200817 yr Bahrain Grand Prix 3rd Free Practice1 N. Rosberg 1:32.521 172 F. Massa 1:32.726 103 M. Webber 1:32.742 164 J. Trulli 1:32.901 185 D. Coulthard 1:32.918 146 K. Nakajima 1:33.020 167 R. Kubica 1:33.024 188 N. Piquet jr. 1:33.074 169 K. Räikkönen 1:33.237 1010 H. Kovalainen 1:33.367 1511 S. Bourdais 1:33.372 1712 G. Fisichella 1:33.392 2013 F. Alonso 1:33.445 1314 R. Barrichello 1:33.551 1815 T. Glock 1:33.595 2016 J. Button 1:33.600 1717 S. Vettel 1:33.651 1418 L. Hamilton 1:33.659 1419 A. Sutil 1:33.857 1820 N. Heidfeld 1:34.074 1621 A. Davidson 1:34.591 1822 T. Sato 1:34.952 16
April 7, 200817 yr Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying1 R. Kubica 1:33.0962 F. Massa 1:33.1233 L. Hamilton 1:33.2924 K. Räikkönen 1:33.4185 H. Kovalainen 1:33.4886 N. Heidfeld 1:33.7377 J. Trulli 1:33.9948 N. Rosberg 1:34.0159 J. Button 1:35.05710 F. Alonso 1:35.11511 M. Webber 1:32.37112 R. Barrichello 1:32.50813 T. Glock 1:32.52814 N. Piquet jr. 1:32.79015 S. Bourdais 1:32.91516 K. Nakajima 1:32.94317 D. Coulthard 1:33.43318 G. Fisichella 1:33.50119 S. Vettel 1:33.50120 A. Sutil 1:33.84521 A. Davidson 1:34.14022 T. Sato 1:35.725
April 7, 200817 yr Bahrain Grand Prix Race1 F. Massa 1:31:06.9702 K. Räikkönen + 3.3393 R. Kubica + 4.9984 N. Heidfeld + 8.4095 H. Kovalainen + 26.7896 J. Trulli + 41.3147 M. Webber + 45.4738 N. Rosberg + 55.8899 T. Glock + 1:09.50010 F. Alonso + 1:17.18111 R. Barrichello + 1:17.86212 G. Fisichella + 1 laps13 L. Hamilton + 1 laps14 K. Nakajima + 1 laps15 S. Bourdais + 1 laps16 A. Davidson + 1 laps17 T. Sato + 1 laps18 D. Coulthard + 1 laps19 A. Sutil + 2 lapsDid not finish20 N. Piquet jr. + 16 laps21 J. Button + 37 laps22 S. Vettel + 57 laps
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