Rubens Barrichello admitted after qualifying in Istanbul that contrary to expectations, Honda are actually further away from the leading pace this weekend than they had been in Barcelona a fortnight ago.
Neither the experienced Brazilian – who is set to make his record-breaking 257th
Formula 1 start in the Turkish Grand Prix – nor team-mate
Jenson Button ever looked entirely comfortable around the challenging Istanbul Park circuit, as the higher temperatures for qualifying compared to practice presented the Japanese outfit with balance issues. Barrichello only escaped from the Q1 drop at the very last moment, but was unable to make it through to Q3 as he ultimately came up a sizeable four tenths of a second short on his special weekend.
“It was a good effort from everyone today,” the 35-year-old underlined, “however unfortunately we are not as fast as we thought we might be here in Turkey. We were closer in Barcelona. It is a balance problem, rather than the tyres or grip levels, and I believe we achieved the best that we could today.
“I couldn't get the car to perform well over the whole lap. The first and second sectors were good, but the third sector wasn't 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.”
Button wound up one position and less than a tenth of a second further adrift in 13th, though at least the British ace – who registered
Honda's first points of the 2008 campaign in Spain two weeks ago – will be beginning the race from the clean side of the grid.
“I have to be reasonably pleased with 13th,” the 28-year-old reflected afterwards, “as we were struggling to get the tyres working in qualifying today. Q1 was not too bad and we completed both runs on the prime tyre.
