Following a slightly frustrating qualifying session at Istanbul Park, the Honda Racing F1 Team will start tomorrow’s Turkish Grand Prix from the sixth and seventh rows of the grid. Rubens Barrichello will line up in 12th place and Jenson Button 13th, after the pair set lap times less than 0.1s apart.

The weather conditions were slightly warmer for qualifying than they have been thus far this weekend, which presented all of the teams with some balance issues. Rubens and Jenson completed two runs each during Q1 in an effort to hone the set-ups of their cars. Q1 ran smoothly for the team and in the dying moments Rubens set a best time of 1:27.355s, which placed him 12th on the timesheets and safely through to Q2. Jenson, meanwhile, was less than 0.1s slower than his team-mate, but two places further back.

Further set-up tweaks took place during the break between Q1 and Q2, with the result that Rubens and Jenson were able to improve on their lap times. They completed two flying laps each and both drivers set their fastest times on their second runs. Rubens’ best was a 1:27.219s, which placed him 12th and 0.4s shy of a place in Q3; Jenson’s fastest time was 1:27.298s, placing him just behind his team-mate and on the clean side of the grid for tomorrow’s 58-lap race.

"It was a good effort from everyone today,” said Rubens, “however, unfortunately we are not as fast as we thought we might be here in Turkey. It is a balance problem, rather than the tyres or grip levels, and I believe we achieved the best that we could today. I could not get the car to perform well over the whole lap. The first and second sector were good, but the third sector was not working for us. Realistically this is where the car is at the moment. We need another step to make us a regular qualifier into Q3."

"I have to be reasonably pleased with 13th as we were struggling to get the tyres working in qualifying today,” commented Jenson. “Q1 was not too bad and we completed both runs on the prime tyre. We switched to the option for my first run in Q2 as everyone seemed to be going quicker on that tyre but for some reason the option didn't work for me and I had no grip. So we went back to the prime which should be about three-tenths slower around here so 13th is not too bad. It's annoying that we can't get the option to work but our prime tyre pace is very good, particularly over longer runs.”

Both Honda Racing F1 Team drivers have finished in the points at Istanbul Park, so they will be looking to use that experience from previous years to make up positions in the race.

“Both Jenson and Rubens are happier with their cars in race trim,” confirmed Steve Clark, Head of Race & Test Engineering, “and neither has had an off-track excursion so far. If we can have a tidy race with a consistent pace then we may still make it into the points. That is certainly the outcome we will be striving for.”

For Rubens, the start will carry more significance than most as it sees him break Riccardo Patrese’s record of 256 grands prix.