Jenson Button was the only Honda Racing F1 Team driver to finish this afternoon’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. The British driver came home in 15th place, while his team-mate Rubens Barrichello retired just before half distance with a gearbox problem.

The weather played a crucial part in the outcome of the race. Rain showers prior to the start meant that the early laps took place on a damp track. Rubens and Jenson weaved through the spinning cars ahead of them at Turn 1 to emerge in 15th and 16thpositions respectively.

A dry line appeared on the racetrack after a couple of laps, allowing them to improve their lap times and set about reducing the gap to Jarno Trulli ahead of them. On lap 10 Rubens was able to overtake Trulli to move up to 14th place. He was up to 12thposition by lap 15, but that was as high as the Brazilian climbed because he lost sixth gear at and was forced to retire shortly after his first pitstop.

"The race was actually going quite well for me but unfortunately I lost sixth gear not long after I overtook Trulli,” commented Rubens. “I tried to keep going but with the way that the gearbox works, you have to go through sixth gear before you can get seventh gear, which caused over-revving of the engine and the potential for significant damage. The team decided it would be best to retire the car as this is my first race with this engine and I have to race with it at Monza next weekend. Overall it has not been a great weekend.”

Jenson, meanwhile, planned to make just one pitstop, on lap 22, but when the rain started to fall three laps from the end, he made a further stop for wet tyres on the penultimate lap. He came home in 15th place.

"It's been a tough weekend and unfortunately the car's performance has been a long way off where I thought we would be here in Spa,” said Jenson. “The car was not handling well at all throughout the first stint as I had no grip and very little balance. So when I came in and switched to the prime tyre, we added front wing which I thought we needed, but not having had the the opportunity to compare the two tyres yesterday, this unfortunately gave me too much front end. Our rear tyre pressures were also too low which made the car very difficult to drive."

“Rubens did a valiant job of battling through almost ten laps without sixth gear,” said Ross Brawn. “However, we indentified that the problem with the gearbox was getting worse and it became dangerous for him to continue as we risked damaging the engine and transmission and the engine was new for this race. As a result of running behind Rubens during this period, Jenson lost touch with the cars he was competing with. Jenson had good pace up until his planned pitstop but struggled for pace after switching to the prime tyre.”

The Honda Racing F1 Team now heads south, to Milan, for the final European round of the season, the Italian Grand Prix on 14 September.